Birthday Fun

We had a fun time at Jenny's house celebrating Chris and Becah's birthdays this Sunday.

Brady, Lauren, & Nick had fun playing with each other, eating popcorn, and sleeping over at Grandma's house.

Courtney LOVED all the attention. . .here she is with Aunt Heidi. Courtney gave cousin Taylor a LOVE, which was SO adorable! She especially loved sharing Chris' cheesecake.All the girls. . .well except me. Good/bad side of having the camera and taking pics is never being in them.

February Happenings

Brady had his Patriotic program a couple weeks ago. It was SUPER cute to see him and all his classmates singing patriotic songs and saying their parts. He did a good job. He had his part memorized the first day he got it and would tell it to me almost everyday until the program. It was cute to see some of his friends too. Lauren and Courtney came too. Brady got a certificate saying he knows the Pledge of Allegiance and it's meaning. It was probably his only program (other then school-wide programs - which are full of kids and parents and difficult to see him since the Kindergartners sit in the first row).

Greg and his family gave us a bird house we could build for Christmas. Brady loves to put things together and could hardly wait to build it. Unfortunately we kept putting it off, so when Greg and Erica came over this week to borrow a camera battery Greg helped him build it. He of course had a blast building it with Greg. Now if our trees would grow faster;)

I had to take some pictures of Courtney because I LOVE her piggies:) It reminds me a bit of Lauren when she had hair long enough for pig tales. We love her chubby face too:) She is speaking more, which is nice because she can tell us what she wants/needs sometimes. She is also getting a bit more brave and can stand unassisted for a few seconds too.Lauren with her piggies at about the same age as Courtney. She couldn't walk yet either, unless she was holding onto our fingers.

FINALLY!!! Lauren's Journey. . .the slide show

I finally loaded the movie I made (after shortening it- speeding up the pictures which meant changing the music a bit too and making the file smaller - hence a little grainy). It's about Lauren's journey, from pre-diagnosis, surgery, ending with the completion of her Make-a-Wish trip (Disneyworld). It brought tears to my eyes when I put it together, and still makes me feel a variety of emotions. I am grateful the hardest part of the 'journey' is now over.

She started her 'regular' 3 month checkup today and all CT scans (chest, abdomen, and pelvis) remained cancer free, she continues with some small lymph nodes around her spleen but they haven't changed and aren't enlarged. Unfortunately her lab results were invalid (very difficult draw from an IV that took 2 pokes too!) so we need to go back to the hospital tomorrow to have them redrawn. . .I haven't broken the bad new to Lauren yet, we found out after being home about 30 minutes. She HATES pokes! (and who wouldn't blame her?).

Hope you enjoy the pictures.