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.

Play Time

The girls were able to have a little playdate while Brady was at school. They had fun dressing up and having a tea party.

Discovery Gatway and MORE!

We bought a pass to Discovery Gateway-the children's museum last January. I don't think I have ever brought a camera there so I thought it was about time since our pass expires the end of the month. The kids LOVE going there! It can be super busy and overwhelming at times trying to keep track of 3 kids, but we decided it would be fun to invite Bethany and cousin Nick and Taylor today. So we all braved the crowd for a couple hours of kid fun.

The Life Flight helicopter is always a hit, thankfully it wasn't too crowded out there so they each got to 'fly' it a few times.Lauren of course gravitated to the doll house (Courtney liked it too. She was just happy to get out of the stroller and crawl around).Brady loves to see how things work. There were a few new things upstairs which was nice, it kept there attention a lot more then usual.Taylor was such a good baby! She just loved watching everyone.Nick and Brady working with the construction stuff.

Lauren was a little apprehensive (a couple bad experiences there have left her a little scared/worried) and stayed right by me. She was exhausted and fell asleep on the way home. She is doing better overall and has a little more energy, her face is not as hollow and has more color, and she is now gaining a little weight now. She is set to see the Oncologist again the beginning of February and will have her next CT scan then. Fingers crossed everything will continue to look good.Courtney LOVED riding in the bumble bee car, she couldn't figure out how to go forward, and threw a little tantrum when she had to come out, thankfully it was short lived:)Courtney is getting busier. She loves to crawl and cruise, exploring everything! She reminds me of Brady the most. He has been very cute with her this week too. She didn't appreciate being held, but he loved holding her:)

Christmas (finally). . .AND a whole lot more!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We had a wonderful, yet busy time. A coworker happened to want to work Christmas Eve night, so I didn't even work the WHOLE week, which made it even better! We celebrated Christmas earlier in the week at Grandma Venita's, she got all of the kids a pillow pet (which they have been wanting FOREVER!) and we also did the Nativity.We had our own Christmas with the kids at our house Christmas morning. Lauren got a barbie house (which ended up being huge, much bigger then expected), a fishing pole, and stocking stuff. Courtney got musical instruments and bath toys. Brady got Lego's, an Erector set, a fishing pole, and stocking stuff. Then we headed to Grandma Jenny and Papa Greg's house for a yummy breakfast including Jenny McMuffins and other scrumptious stuff. Jenny and Greg got the kids pillow pets too! Brady sounds like a little info commercial for them now. The kids have LOVED them and even slept on them for a week. Lauren got a boy barbie (the beast/prince) and a barbie car. Brady got a Star Wars computer to play abc, math games, ect. Courtney got a cute little doll (she gave it a love too right after opening it - so cute!). They all got a cute outfit and new PJ's. Brock and I got a new cooler, family movie bucket and game. Papa Mark came over to our house later in the afternoon and brought some fun things too. Brady got this (see below) and a 2 little storm troopers. Courtney got some clothes, diapers and wipes. Lauren got some clothes, slippers, and Ya ya made a Tinkerbell blanket for her. The kids had a really fun time this Christmas, and we even had a lot less fighting for one day;)Then we had my mom, sister Elaina, Lance and their little guy Isaac over for a turkey Christmas dinner - my first attempt at turkey believe it or not. It was quite delicious, but made a lot of leftovers. I think I am done with turkey for a while;)

Other December stuff. . .

We celebrated Courtney's birthday at my mom's house. I thought she at least needed her own birthday cake for her first birthday! She had tons of fun eating it and making a mess of it. The cousins had a blast watching her too. We went on the Polar Express to the North Pole with other Make-a-Wish kids. Grandma Venita got to go with us too. We all rode in 3 huge tour buses, had lunch at McDonald's, and then boarded the train for a short 30 min ride to Santa's house where we had cookies, hot chocolate and Santa even got the kids a present!We made gingerbread houses (our yearly tradition) with my mom. The kids loved it and could hardly wait to eat some of the candy off of it.The kids had a blast when they got a secret gift for the 12 days of Christmas from a secret elf. It made the mornings quite fun!

Lauren and Brady both had their school programs. Lauren actually participated this time and it was SUPER cute! Brady did a wonderful job too, singing all the words and doing the actions too.

We had Lauren's star raising party at Make-a-Wish. It was a couple days before Christmas, so a busy time of year. I made a movie/slide show of Lauren's whole experience from just before her diagnosis, thru chemo, hair loss, then to our exciting finale. . .Disney World! It was a very emotional movie at the beginning and I couldn't help but bawl, but it was super exciting at the end. Her wish granters, Jan and Lindsay were amazing! They made yummy appetizers, brought drinks and a princess cake for the party. I think it turned out wonderful!