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.

Tired

Long night last night. Carter's in the middle of Delayed Intensification. (Head to my photography blog to see details on that.) He's been doing amazingly well. He should be puking his brains out and while he doesn't feel fabulous, he's not throwing up. YAY! Last night when he was heading to bed he felt particularly nasty. He went to sleep at 7:00, garbage can in hand ready to vomit... whimpering. Poor guy. At 10:00 Bryan and I were in the family room and we heard him crying. He was in our bathroom going potty and on FIRE. His temp was 104. Again, poor guy. So, we called the oncologist who told us to head to the ER. Bummer.

The nice thing about him having cancer is that when Carter and I got there they knew he was coming (thank you to the oncologist for calling) and we didn't even sit down. We headed back to Carter's room and he went back to sleep. He still had a fever, though it was a little lower at this point. When he gets a fever we aren't allowed to give him anything to treat it until they get his blood counts and give us the okay. They want to see what the fever will do on it's own. It wasn't until I asked the nurse a few times at 1:00am for Tylenol that we actually got one. (Poor ER nurses. They are going a million directions at one time.)

By the time they finally accessed his port he was no longer numb from the numbing cream I had put on him. They missed his port the first time (they did this last time we were in the ER) so they had to poke him twice... at 12:30am... while he wasn't even numb. He was NOT entertained. But, we finally got his counts. They were really high, which is GREAT! What that means is that his body sensed the sickness (whatever it may be, we still don't know) and his white blood cells went crazy multiplying trying to fight it off. This is great! They pumped him full of some pricey, super strong antibiotics and by 3am we were back in our own beds at home.

It was a long, looong night but it was good to hear that his body's doing what it should be doing. His fever is all but gone this morning and we are heading into the oncology clinic in a few hours to get some more of the antibiotic. Poor kid. He had been de-accessed for a grand total of 12 hours before they poked him again. We had de-accessed him at home yesterday morning (that means that we took the poke out of his port) after we had given him his dose of chemo at home. But, as always, he took it in stride, slept in this morning, and hasn't complained even once. Amazing.

Here's a picture I took at the hospital on my iPhone last night. He looks so darn tired... :(