May 16, 2014

In two and a half years we will have a cancer-free son! He started maintenance this past week. We have an official "cure" day. May 16, 2014. A meer month before he turns 9. I can't wait for that day. SERIOUS celebrating will be going' on up in her'! I know it's a long, long, LONG ways away still but at least there's a date. We're so proud of Carter for being so strong, brave, and positive throughout all of this. We could not have been blessed with a more perfect son. By Christmas he'll have a short little buzz cut! It's already looking great. When you rub his hair (which is as soft as a newborn's) you can feel little spikes of new hairs coming up. I can't tell if he looks like a cancer patient anymore because to me he has a TON of hair. But then, I think if I saw him like this 9 months ago I would have been horrified.

He was diagnosed with Leukemia 8 months and 17 days ago and now he goes into his final cycle of chemo. What to expect for the next 2 1/2 years is this:

--> 5 days of steroids a month (3 pills in the morning and two pills at night). They cause insomnia for about a week. Sucks.

--> 1 prevacid each morning (helps with stomach acid which is caused all of the other meds)

--> Mercaptipurine nightly (a type of chemotherapy in pill form taken at least two hours after dinner with only water... I have to set my alarm every night. So annoying. Because it's chemo you can't touch it with your fingers... yet I willingly have my son swallow it. Weekends he has two pills at night. This one makes him kind of sick. I don't like it.)

--> Methotrexate (another oral chemo-- again, can't touch it) every Monday (with a few exceptions). 6 1/2 pills at night.

--> Each chemo visit will consist of Vincristine through his port.

--> Each chemo visit will also consist of an hour long dose of Pentamodine (an antibiotic to prevent pneumonia... which could kill him).

--> Every three months he has a spinal tap where they give him Methotrexate into his spine and test the spinal fluids for cancer. (these are the Mondays where he won't take his Methotrexate at home)

There is a chance that some of these will be switched up a bit if he doesn't react well to them. For example, the Mercaptipurine caused serious elevated liver counts last time he took it. He had to take it for a month last time and by the end of the month one of his liver counts was 875 and in a normal person it's 25. Left that high for too long there will be permanent liver damage. If he does that again this time around they will have to change it up with another drug. The one that they would use would probably be one that causes serious hair loss and nausea. (Although last time he took it he didn't get real sick... but went VERY VERY bald.) Only time will tell though. Just because he reacted a certain way last time he took a specific drug doesn't mean that he'll react that same way this time around. (Annoying, right?)

I have mixed feelings about his hair coming back in. Him being bald is a very visual reminder that he has cancer. Once his hair is back in then people won't be as careful but he'll still be as sick... you know? But, it's fun to watch his hair come back in. It's pretty light. I think it'll be a dirty blond. Much lighter than before. But there's still time for a curve ball with his hair color.

Here's the video of what we think of Carter going into maintenance. Be sure to mute the music so you can hear it... actually, we're pretty loud. :)

Pine Creek HS Football Game

Friday night was an absolute blast. One of the senior football players at the local high school (the one our kids will attend when they are older) wanted to do a service project to add to his college application. He called the oncology clinic and told them he wanted to have one of the cancer kids be a part of one of their football games. The clinic thought of Carter... because he's so darn cute, I'm sure. ;)

Before the game there was a dinner for all the football players that Bryan took Carter to. The boys gave him a jersey and he got to spend the meal chatting with them. He also got to meet the very beautiful team managers. (His words... not mine. :))

The game we went to was Senior Night so they made Carter an "Honorary Senior". We got to walk onto the field with balloons while they announced "Number 45, Carter Wyeth". The announcer then announced that he was fighting cancer and that Pine Creek HS had his back. The crown cheered and Carter felt like a super star. There were strangers taking pictures of him. It was kind of funny. It was probably the Yoda hat. :)

The team also gave Carter a signed football. It may as well be signed by the Cardinals. He absolutely LOVES it.
When it was time for the coin toss one of the senior boys came and asked Carter if he wanted to come onto the field and do the coin toss with them. (Guess what Carter's response was?) This cute senior took Carter's hand and took him onto the field for the toss, held his hand while he was out there, and then gave him a fist bump before they all came trotting back. There's a better picture of it on the high school's website this week. You can see it here. Throughout the game, the players kept coming up to Carter and telling him that they were playing the game for him, that they were going to win it for him, that he was their good luck charm. It made him feel so special!!

The team managers all wanted their pictures taken with Carter. They took Carter around with them while the guys were out playing. He gave the players water and went onto the field when he was allowed to with the girls. (He'll LOVE this picture in a few years.)
This is Cub Olsen. He's the senior that put all this together. It was a dream come true for Carter and I could just kiss this sweet kid for doing it. He will never know how much it meant to Carter and long after Cub has forgotten all about that night, Carter will still be telling his own kids about it. Cub kept coming up to Carter through out the game to make sure he was having fun.(Heading onto the field between quarters to give the players water.)
At 1/2 time all the cheerleaders headed over to meet the kids. They thought they were totally adorable (duh) and wanted to take pictures with them and give them hugs. Addilyn thought they were so beautiful too. :) That colorful hat in the middle of that picture is Addilyn... being smothered by all the cheerleaders.
Carter with all the cheerleaders.
There is a darling boy in our ward that plays for PCHS as well. I seriously adore this kid. I don't know him that well but I'd be a liar if I said I hadn't done the math to see if he's too old for Addilyn... I think he is. :( That's him on the right with Cub. My kids thought they were suppose to kneel down as well. Goofs. :)One of the cheerleaders taught Addilyn (we use the term loosely) a cheer and said whenever she was ready for me to bring her over and they would do the cheer for the crowd. Of course we headed over as soon as 1/2 time was over. They gave her pompoms to use and she did the entire cheer with them... which turned into the entire second half of the game. She shook her booty and her pom poms until the game was over. She also took off her jacket despite the chilly weather because she wanted everyone to see her Pine Creek shirt the team had given her (they game us all shirts).
They even did a lift with her. Addilyn has since declared, "Mom, I want to be a pom pom girl when I grown up!" (Sorry, Uncle Bradley...)

She became particularly attached to this cheerleader, Sarah. She even asked me Saturday morning if we could call her. :)After the game the cheer coach gave Addilyn some roses for being such a good cheerleader.

Here are the souvenirs from the night. he also got a water bottle from the team managers.

The night could not have been more fun for all of us and more magical for my kids. They had so so SO much fun and I'm so glad that Cub put all this together for our cute little fighter. Major blessings in heaven for that kid!!

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween I kinda flaked. I'm just tired. All. The. Time. I'm just kind of done with life, ya know? We all get like that, sometimes... right? (please say "right" or I'll feel super slacker.) Addi wanted to be Spider Girl and we found these really cute spider accessories at Claires. She loved them so don't tell her they look nothing like the real spider girl. Carter wanted to be Darth Vader. No problem. Everyone I know has a Vader outfit so we borrowed one and called it good. As for Pres, well, I called my dear old pal, Katie Budge, how has a little girl almost a year older than Preslee and borrowed Brinklee's outfit from last year. Pres was happy as a bug in a rug about it. She just wanted the candy. :) We had a really fun evening and made it to about 30-40 houses before everyone pooped out. Even though the kids only had a few pieces of candy last night Carter still got kind of sick at school and came home after lunch. Last week at chemo he got a really high dose of meth (don't worry, the real name is Methotrexate, but it's more fun to say our 6 year old is a meth-head) and he hasn't felt great since. Poor thing. Thank heavens for Zofran. All in all, Halloween was a success!

An Update

So, it's not Sunday. In fact, it's not LAST Sunday which is when I should have posted. But, we've been busy moving. We are slowly getting settled into the house and LOVING every last millisecond of having space. My parents came up to get us started andGrammie and Namoi (not a spelling error :)) were here to help us get settled. It was SO fun having everyone here.

Clearly, I was excited about getting the keys. (Bry was at work so I had to text him the proof.)

Addilyn's current favorite game is Memory. And, let me tell you, she WILL smoke you. She WILL take you to the cleaners. She WILL beat you. You don't have to go easy on her. This is from an actual game where I honest to goodness TRIED to beat the little twirp... and failed miserably. :)
We had our first snow fall of the season last Saturday. It snowed... ans snowed... and snowed... and then promptly melted. That's how I like my snow. Pretty, and then gone. Here's the house from the outside during the snow. The kids were SO excited and couldn't wait to go play in it... for about 4.3 seconds until they got cold. :)
My poor cold Halloween spider...
Here are a few pictures from before we moved in. Do I even need to state that it is nowhere near this clean right now? Because it's not. :) This is the family room. The front door is over my right shoulder and that is the kitchen counter just to the right. Basement stairs are to my right and the master bedroom is to my left.

Our kitchen. I LOOOOOOVE this kitchen. LOVE.

The most exciting thing that happened this week is that Carter was able to start school again. He loves it and while he was really nervous, he is happy he's back. My only hiccup is that he doesn't have anyone to play with at recess. Because he's so tired and weak he can't keep up with his buddies so he just walks around alone. Did your heart just break a little? Because mine shattered into about a million pieces and I spent all afternoon and night crying. Just another sucky thing about his situation. I don't know if it will get better over time... I'm planning on asking the doctor though. His teacher (the man on the very left side of the picture, the lady in the pic is the school counselor who did a little thing on Leukemia) is AWESOME. He's funny and watches over Carter without mothering him, which is perfect. One of his best friends who is also in his class at school lives right across the street so they play every afternoon. It's good for Carter to have a boy to play Wii, Legos, Light Saber fights, etc with.

We had SOOOOO much fun with Grammie. The only lame thing is that she had to leave. :( My kids were heartbroken as always. They made a super cool volcano cake with her. The kids helped decorate it and it tasted lovely, if I do say so myself.


Pres is still totally hysterical and giving me 20 new gray hairs a day. She now calls Grammie "Gram" and Grandad "Powpow". You know his little "Pow Pow Pow!" thing he does with the kids? Well, Pres thinks it's the funniest thing ever and canNOT get enough of him. Grammie has taken the back seat to Powpow for the time being. :)
Work's going great for Bryan and we are just putting along. Carter's hair is starting to grow in (he still looks totally bald though) and we think (*think*) it's coming in blond? It's still a little early to tell but his eye lashes are darkening up again so it could go either way. He wants it to grow in dark.

I still need to play catch up with hte blog but this is better than nothing right? :)

Breckenridge- Painting

While we were in Breckenridge we went to "Ready, Paint, Fire" twice. The kids loved it and it was a nice relaxing activity that was perfect for Carter's low energy level... although not a real "Preslee-friendly" place. The kids made some darling little things and were SO excited that they got bright and shiny. My parent made a plate with their hand prints on them and we made some coasters for Gigi for her birthday. I could have taken my kids here every day. They seriously loved it... even if Addi DID paint her little angel forest green. (seriously?)

Our Big 2 Year Old!

Never mind that this post is nearly two months late... at least it's here, right? We got up to Breckenridge the day before Preslee's 2nd birthday. It was so fun to celebrate her birthday with just our family and my parents. We sat in the hot tub (hence the kids looking like drowned rats), went up the gondola, and just spent time together. It could not have been more perfect. Plus, Pres got to eat all the cake she wanted! We even brought up all her presents so she could open them on her actual birthday.

Look at her, eye on the prize....

Blowing with all her might. You may notice that Bryan is holding her hand. That's because last year he wasn't watching her closely enough (I was taking pictures a few feet away) and she totally burned her finger on the candle... oops. :)
Happy little thing.
We finally took her cute birthday dress from Nona and Papa off because she was ummm... kind of a piggie with the cake. :)
JACKPOT!
These two were do good about letting her open her own presents. They sat on teh table so they had extra good seats but they stayed away from the presents.
Preslee's favorites:

Show: Dora ("Dowa"), Team Oomie Zoomie ("Soomie"), and Bubble Guppies ("Buppies")

Color: "PINK!" For the record, every color is pink, and so are a few items... like their vitamins for some reason. "Want pink, Mommy!" (That's how she asks for a vitamin.)

Activity: She LOVES playing with Carter and Addilyn. She brings me her dress ups first thing in the morning and will wear them all day long. She takes after her big sister. :)

Food: Gogurts.

Preslee is the PERFECT caboose for our family. She is so stinking cute! She has a spice for life like no one I've ever met and the curiosity to prove it. She's really funny too. She will growl "Thank You" when you give her something. Or she'll whisper it. She knows the words to the Phineus and Ferb theme song. She loves to be rocked... almost as much as love to rock her. She's potty trained (during the day... diapers still at night since she's still in a crib). She's really verbal and loves to sing. She dances like a white girl. She's got THE cutest laugh. She's got awesome hair. She gives the best hugs of all three of my kids... complete with a kicked up leg. (Again, learned that from her big sis.)

We couldn't possibly love this little girl more. Carter and Addi feel the same way. They love to give her hugs (which are sometimes met with smacks and sometimes met with a returned hug). We can't imagine life without her. We would be incomplete without our little Tasmanian devil.

First Day of School!

It may or may not have been three weeks ago... :) I just haven't been in the blogging mood. Lots going on. Mostly doctor appointments. Addilyn started at a new preschool this year. She ADORES her teacher. She's learning a ton which is great and I have no doubt that she will be ready for Kindergarten next year. She's in there with her little bestie, Rylee, as well as her cousin, Blake, and a few other friends. It's a perfect fit and I can't wait to see how smart she gets this year!

Carter will *hopefully* start up school again in about three weeks. As soon as his counts recover from this past cycle of chemo and stay recovered he has the go ahead to get back to school. It will be touch and go for the first little while. I'm sure he'll catch everything in the entire school... and probably a few other things as well. But we can't wait forever, right? He's anxious to get back, especially as he sees his little sister go to school 3 days a week while he stays home with Preslee and me. He is, as always, a total trooper about it.

Check the Photography Blog

I'm too lazy to post the pictures and post again here so go check out my photography blog. I posted some super cute pictures of my parents. Some with my kiddies and some without. Either way, they are so priceless to me!!! Peace.

C Money

I just looked through my blog (thanks for the comments here and there!) and realized that I hadn't posted these pictures I took of Carter while we were in Breck last month. He's such a good sport... me shoving my camera in his face all the time... 1/2 of the time when he feels like doodoo. One of these days he's going to just puke on my camera just to prove a point. :) But, until then, camera in the face it is! :) I think I'm a touch bias but isn't he SO cute?!?!? I love him in hats. I also love him bald. As crazy as it seems, he has TONS of hair in these pictures compared to what he has now. He's so cute and shiny-bald now. There's not a lick of hair to be seen. The other day Bryan painted his head black... just for fun. We enjoy having the Bald Eag around. :) While Addi and I were in San Diego for my girls weekend (girlfriends from AZ) she saw a picture of Carter all cute and bald at Gigi's house (my super cute Grandma). She turned to my mom and exclaimed, "That little bald boy misses me!!" Indeed, he did. I think it was just as much that he wanted to make sure she wasn't having too much fun without him. He has declared that he and Daddy will be going on their own Boys Trip as soon as he's healthy enough to travel. Not sure how to break the news to him that his cancer has left nothing but crickets int he bank account. :) I really can't get enough of this kid. He's my hero and I hive him millions of kisses every day... since he's still small enough that he's not embarrassed by me yet. :)

A Little Update

I know I've been neglecting the blog. Lots going on. Here's a quick update on the family.

Bryan went on a boys weekend to New Orleans with Clint (always), Bill (Clint's brother), and Collin Christensen (his cousin). They had a lot of fun. They went and saw Joe Rogan (the Survivor dude who is also into UFC) do a show about UFC, went on a cool swamp tour, went to what I can only assume is an aquarium (he texted the kids a picture of a baby alligator and turtle), and of course, hit up an NFL game.

My mom came and hung out with me for the weekend with the kids. Always makes it a little better having someone to spend the weekend with when Bryan is gone. I get so bored at night.

Carter's counts are super sucky. They more or less have been since the beginning of August. He hasn't really played with anyone since then. He hasn't even seen his sweet friend Taeler except for once since then. We avoided a blood transfusion this weekend by the skin of our teeth. That wouldn't have been a huge deal but it would have been a day in the hospital and a day away from the girls. We went to the doctor again today for his monthly antibiotic and checked counts again. Still bad but showing signs of heading the right direction. He has another appointment on Friday and IF (big "if") he passes counts he will start a new cycle of chemo on Monday morning. Personally, I don't think he'll pass.

Pathetic moment of the week: Addilyn for the past few weeks has been complaining of being tired and having pain in her legs and stuff like that. Those were the same complaints that Carter had when he was diagnosed. So, Dr Reaves (the oncologist) let me bring her in today and they tested her for Leukemia. Good news guys; she doesn't have it. :) Dr Reaves giggled when I requested the test with the disclaimer of "I know I'm being silly but..." and assured me that I am NOT the first parent that is uber paranoid about siblings getting cancer as well.

Pres is still too cute and wild for words. She learned how to climb out of not only her crib but also a port-a-crib. She's only done each one time but unfortunately I think our days in the crib are numbered. I can't believe I'll be getting rid of it... never thought I'd see the day.

I'm good... same old thing. I'm working away on getting a few photo sessions done. I took out some girlfriends this weekend for a "Hot Mama" shoot. We had so much fun. The weather and girls were beautiful so in turn the pictures are beautiful.

Next I'm going to post about our vacation to Breckenridge... over a month ago. :) Until then, I'll find a random picture to post with this post.

This picture is from Breckenridge. I have been SUPER bad about just pulling out the camera. I think after we move (IN TWO WEEKS!!!!!) I'll be better about it. I'll be sure to take pictures of the disaster of a house while we are unpacking. :)

Family Pictures

It took THREE times to actually get our family pictures taken. THREE. Not because of the cancer (although that would be a better story). Nope. It was because the weather up here kept giving us storms on my picture day! Seriously? What's up with that? But, we finally got them done. It was very important for me to get family pictures taken while Carter was bald. I want this documented. (It's the photographer in me.) This is (hopefully) the most life changing thing my sweet little family will EVER go through. Plus, it's been almost two years since we had pics taken. With moving and everything last year we were aiming for spring time and then the whole "your kid has cancer" thing happened so pics got put on the back burner. But, alas, here they are and I couldn't be happier with them. My super duper awesome friend Chelsea Bevans of Shutter Bliss Photography took them. These ones I edited but you can pop over to her blog and see the ones she edited of us.

Addi is such a poser. And when the light hit that super pretty time and the other three kids were done (who's the third, you ask? Why, it's Bryan. :)) Chelsea wanted to take advantage of Addilyn's killer hair and took a few pictures. As you can tell, Addi put up a REAL fight... (eye roll)

Love this man more and more with each passing day. Don't know what I did to get so lucky but I thank our dear Father in Heaven for him each and every day.
This is the Christmas card one so... get ready! :)

I pink puffy heart this one. It'll be framed somewhere.
His shirt made me giggle. We support drugs in our house. :)

Bryan is SO good with making the kids laugh.