Christmas 2009

Emma with cousin Ruby

Emma showing us her cute cowgirl figurine

Brielle with her horse, Flicka

Emma with her horse, Spirit!

Brielle looking at her Whoopsie Doo baby

Emma admiring her white horse, Rosie!

The girls posing with their gifts from Santa

Waiting to run downstairs on Christmas morning

Christmas was a mixed bag for me this year. Not only was I doing some last-minute shopping a couple days before Christmas (which I hate), I also hadn't wrapped a single present until 11:00pm on Christmas Eve. I hate being unprepared! To top things off, Nick wasn't feeling well on Christmas Eve or Christmas due a shot he needed to boost his white count. So, I thought the week after Christmas was better because we had time to relax, sleep in, go to movies, and play with our new toys. However, the girls had a great Christmas day. The big excitement came from receiving their very own horses to ride on from Grandma Judy! They could have "rode" them all day! Two of my favorite moments on Christmas were comments from the girls about their presents.

Brielle: This year we started talking to her about giving her binky to Santa so he could give it to a newborn baby and in trade he could bring her a Whoopsie Doo doll (which is what she had been asking for). Brielle was just using her binky in the car and to sleep, but I knew it was going to be a challenge so I thought this might work. We talked about it a lot in December. So, on Christmas Day it was gone and Whoopsie Doo had arrived in its place. The day went by with a little bit of whining but the funniest thing happened when we finally got home. Brielle asked me if Santa was going to come back. I assured her that he would be back next year. Her next question..."Will he take my blanket?" Awww... Now she thinks Santa takes things from children!! I felt really bad after that comment, but hopefully she won't remember it later.

Emma: The one thing she kept asking for from Santa was "the white horse with a pink saddle from Target." So, after Santa brought that to her she spent the day gushing about how she got what she had asked for, how beautiful it was, etc. Then, during one of these moments she exclaimed, "I'm so glad Santa brought me the horse that I wanted, since you and Dad couldn't afford it!" hee hee. I'm so glad Santa could "afford" it! :) You gotta love the magic of Santa!

December

The girls' in their beautiful Christmas dresses

Eight kids on one couch? What cute cousins!

my girls' as angels in the Nativity

The one and only time they sat on Santa's lap

You can tell by their faces that they are goof balls!

They were so excited to decorate the tree

Nick's birthday

The dancing, jingling horse we saw at Christmas village

Bundled up for a night at Christmas village

Yes, December was a blur. I wish it were 2 weeks longer so I could cram more in! There are always things we miss out on, but here are the things that kept us busy this month!

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.

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?

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!