Thursday, December 3, 2009

November

what a beautiful little face she has!


Brielle was so excited to stomp snow with her new boots

My family (minus Nick) at my grandma's funeral

In the first week of November we had Nick's PET scan and bone marrow biopsy appointments, our Primary program, and the funeral of my grandmother who had passed away over the weekend. What a way to start off the month!
First, Nick's appointments went great. On Monday he did the bone marrow biopsy and PET scan. On Thursday we went down for the results. Drum roll.......all of his tests came back CANCER-FREE!! (he even had a liver biopsy the week before that showed no signs of lymphoma.) I have never seen his oncologist so happy. I think his doctor was unsure of how Nick was going to respond to the treatment because of his suppressed immune system. I know she did extra tests and minimized the time between appointments just so she could keep close track of him. We are grateful that she did because besides the blood clot in his lung (oh, yeah, he was in the hospital for 3 days at the end of October) he was able to tolerate the chemotherapy treatment so well. So, now he has once a month appointments with his transplant doctor and every 6 weeks he sees his oncologist. Yippee!
In the midst of Nick's appointments I had my grandmother's funeral to attend and participate in. It wasn't a huge surprise when she passed. She had been going downhill for the last 5 years and even more so over the past few months. She lived across the street from us for most of my life and she was such an amazing example to me. My grandpa is also a wonderful person because he was able to take care of her at home until the last month or two when he had Hospice come into to give her added attention. Emma was especially fond of "old grandma" and would go over to her house and stroke her hair. This was Emma's first funeral and I was unsure how she would react. She asked a lot of questions but seemed to know more than I gave her credit for. My grandma's funeral also became a great way to spend some time with two of my brothers who I won't see again until Christmas.
The Primary program topped off our week and it went really well even though the practice the day before was a little hairy. I could hardly sing the first few songs because of the tears they brought to my eyes with their amazing voices! Kids always seem to shine when their parents are watching! It's also fun to look out at the congregation and see the obvious pride of their parents.
The rest of November was somewhat of a blur. Nick started back to work part-time. I started a few Christmas projects. I took Emma to see Disney On Ice--Princess Classics. It was so incredible! I've never been before and we had such a fun time together on our mother-daughter date! I also became an Ebay addict for a couple days when I found some good deals on Christmas presents. I watched my kids play in the snow. I enjoyed the peacefulness of Thanksgiving. I thought about my blog and wondered when I was going to catch up!

Bad Blogger

Halloween was done the old fashioned way this year. Door-to-door trick-or-treating! We went around one block and got a whole bucket full of candy and spent the rest of the night eating homemade chili and donuts with Nick's family.



One Saturday in October we rounded up all the kids and went to Lagoon for the last time. The weather was perfect--low 70's. The kids trick-or-treated and rode all their favorite rides. Here is the best picture I could get among them making "scary faces"!



Oh! What a bad blogger I have been! Life has just been whisking away and as the last month of the year sstarts off, I wonder if anything from this year has actually been real. So, to catch up here is the rest of our October in a few quick pics.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Snowbasin

our family riding the gondola up the mountain

Emma making her own trail
they were so excited to see snow!

Nick and the girls at the top of the mountain

With the weather suddenly turning cold we decided we better take a drive through the mountains to see the fall leaves. So after Conference on Saturday we grabbed lunch and headed up the canyon. Trapper's loop looked beautiful so we kept driving until we got to Snowbasin. My girls were having a great time tromping through the leaves and discovering snow. It was also the last day that you could ride the gondola up the mountain so we decided to try it. It was exciting even though all there was to do at the top was eat in the lodge or hike. (We weren't dressed for hiking around espeically when it felt like winter and we had already eaten.) Coming down was incredible because the sun had started to come out and you could see the whole valley! It was a fun fall day!

Update

I thought I should do a Nick update since it has been awhile. Nick had his latest PET scan on September 22 after his 4th chemotherapy cycle. Things looked great. All of the lymphoma areas were better and the doctors were very pleased. He still had to complete 2 more cycles of chemotherapy and his last one was on October 8th. Yeah! We have been very blessed that he has done so well on chemotherapy. He has actually gained weight and his only complaint was some body soreness. Now we are waiting until November 2nd when they will do another PET scan and bone marrow biopsy to see how things are going with no chemo. If that looks clear Nick's next check-up will be 3 months from then. That will put it around 1 year from when all of this started. (sigh). Right now, Nick is stuck in limbo. He feels good enough to start working (at least a few hours each day) but his transplant doctor does not want him to start back yet. He feels like Nick is still too susceptible to everything and he can't get the flu or H1N1 vaccines until it is closer to his 6 month mark (around Nov 2). His next appointment with his transplant doctor is next week so we will see what he says. For now, we are enjoying the fact that he is home and able to do things with us or can watch the girls for short periods of time! Do I dare say things are slowing down?

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

In my spare time....

the pillowcase dresses I made for the girls

my first 5K with my bro-in-law James
home-made salsa 2009
I decided to give myself an extension. I hate it when I don't get things done that are on my list, so it's bugging me that I still have items on my "30 list" and it is past my birthday. (My excuse is that I kind of had a crazy year!!) I'm still trying to work on the list and I am hoping I can get most of them done by the end of 2009, but we will see. So, here are a few things I've been working on.
Pillowcase dresses: they don't have anything to do with my list, but I was just so proud of myself for sewing them. I haven't sewn anything since my 7th grade windsock, so I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. I thought the girls looked cute in them.
5K: I ran my first 5K in August in the Dash for Donation. The course was at Weber State and it had two major hills to climb, but I did better than I thought. 8th place overall; 2nd in women ages 26-30. Official time: 37:35 which I know is not fast to those of you who run, but I was happy to be under 40 minutes since I hadn't run for 3 weeks prior to the race (Nick was in the hospital). I could barely walk down the stairs the next day, but it was such a great feeling of accomplishment! I liked it so much that I ran another 5K in September and I beat my time by 2 minutes! It's funny because I don't love to run, but the races make it worthwhile.
Salsa: I haven't made salsa in 5 years and Nick loves it, so I begged my mom to come help me one Friday night. We were up until 1 am, but we were able to can 7 quarts and 6 pints. It is the best salsa we have made so far. Let's hope it lasts until next year!

Surprise!


Normally, I love my birthday. Not this year. I was not looking forward it. Turning thirty seemed like the icing on the cake (no pun intended) to an already tumultuous year. It also happened to fall on Nick's 3rd chemotherapy appointment which meant we couldn't do much of a celebration. So I went along with life trying to ignore the upcoming date....until I found a piece of paper in Nick's gym shorts. It had the names of my 3 best friends from high school and their phone numbers, and addresses to some of my friends in Roy. What in the world is this? Oh no! Nick was trying to throw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday-- just like I did when he turned 30. Revenge or Love? So, I tried to not snoop to find out when this was happening. It was later when Nick practically forced me to see a movie I didn't really want to see, and then took me shopping (which I'm sure Nick didn't want to do), did I realize that he was distracting me while things were set up. Eventually we made it home to a garage full of family, friends, and food. And we had fun! Nick had the idea in the works for several weeks and also had a lot of help from family members. The garage was decorated, dinner was served, and we had cake and ice cream to top it off! It was great to visit and relax with everyone! (FYI on my actual birthday, I ate a delicious lunch from Huntsman while spending some quality time with Nick and then later we went to Farr's ice cream with the girls.Yum)

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

More Museums...More Horses

the new horses at the Treehouse Museum


the girls did play for a moment with the doctor/baby stuff
Yee-haw!

It seems collecting eggs is fun no matter what museum you're at

Emma trying the construction business
playing grocery store--a favorite in my memory of the old Children's Museum

surprise...surprise....the girls found the horse!

So as a child, I remember going to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake to dig dinosaur bones, play grocery store, write on giant checks, and check out the inside of an airplane. I thought it was the greatest place. Well, I guess that place is gone, and the new and improved museum is called Discovery Museum at the Gateway. With our free passes in hand we headed to Salt Lake the week before school started so we could check it out. It was a fun place for the girls to explore and we spent half of the day there. We also went to see the new "Wild West" exhibit at the Treehouse Museum in September before our membership ran out. And as you can see, the favorite place to play was with the horses!!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Utah State Fair

Our family (plus one fun cousin)

What cute carrots!
Brielle pickin' apples on the farm

collecting her eggs

Isabelle and Brielle after a day on the farm

our favorite part of the fair....

riding a horse, of coarse!

my favorite part of the fair

petting the animals

I love September for so many reasons! The start of a new school year, my birthday (more on that later), garden tomatoes, crisp fall air, new school supplies, making salsa, wearing jackets, and the Utah State Fair! This year we attempted to attend the All-You-Can-Eat ice cream festival (part of my "30 list), but it started to rain so we only made it to Layton before we turned back for home. Luckily, there were 5 more days of the fair, so we went down later that week and had a great time! It's too bad the money disappears so fast...we could have played all night!

Kindergarten

Emma's first day of school

posing on the playground

Emma found her seat at the red table

Lining up on the second day

Jill, Emma, Brielle, and Ike on the third day

building sandcastles before the bell rings

the exciting part for Brielle--the playground

I'm not sure how it happened.....but I now have a child in Kindergarten! We've talked about it since preschool ended and then in a blink of an eye, the day had come. I didn't cry as I sent her off that first day. I think I wiped the sweat off my forehead in my mad dash to get the whole family ready by 8:15am. That is why I took pictures of the whole first week....I felt rushed in all the "first day pictures". Emma has reported "Kindergarten is even better than preschool because every day is a surprise! " It has also been great to hear all of the quotes that are said during the first week of Kindergarten such as:
"A little glue will do"
"Don't be afraid of your pencil or use it as a weapon"
"Keep your hands inside your invisible bubble (personal space)"
"You get what you get and you don't get upset"
Haha. Kindergarten teachers have so much patience!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Last Half of Summer

Brielle on "Red"! She looks so tiny!



Emma learning how to "lead" Red
A friend of mine invited the girls over to ride her horse, Red. They got to brush, feed, and bathe him, too! They were in heaven!

The girls at the Davis County Fair's petting farm


Riding the ponies at the Davis County Fair. Worth the 45 min wait!

My pretty girls in front of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

it was a little windy, but we still had fun
What else screams summer like Popsicles and Snowie's?
Lagoon! We truly enjoyed our season passes this year!


Emma favorite ride this year was "The Bat" so we took a picture in front of their cage! (You can see their red eyes when it's enlarged).


One thing I learned from Nick's last hospital stay was that my kids were totally thrown off with both of us gone. I know we tried to make the best of the situation and we were very blessed to have so many family members and friends willing to take care of them for about two weeks while Nick was so critical. But once I came home, it became harder to drop Brielle off in nursery or at her baby sitter's. She was very clingy for at least a month. Emma was busy finishing the year with preschool and dance, but I know she was worried that one day she would wake up and we would be gone again. She was very leery anytime Nick had a doctor's appointment or I was going to the hospital by myself.
So, with Nick's most recent stay in the hospital, I tried to be at home with the girls as much as possible. It helped that Nick was not as "critical" and his family was very willing to stay overnight with him. I'd like to think that the girls were less affected this time. We tried to keep doing the fun things that we already had planned even though Nick couldn't be there. Here are a few things we did that I actually had my camera for!