iMarch

I've got to be honest, I think I was glad to see March pass behind me.  We knew going into the month that it would be the start of Luke's relapse treatment, and the first step on the path towards another bone marrow transplant.  And while that was terrifying, I've lived through enough of this stuff to know that the anticipation of pain is almost always worse than the pain itself.  I knew that once we were started, we'd be fine.  And as I look at this slice of our life, I know I was right.  We haven't been beaten yet!

Luke's last day at home before going into treatment was my birthday.  Even though it was my day, I had to let Luke lick the spoon!  

The kids always love coming to the hospital.  It's a children's hospital, after all!  There's always something fun to do, and seeing Spiderman is one of the kids' favorites.

How grateful I am for the technology that keeps us connected when we can't be together.  We love our FaceTime calls with Luke, and he loves them even more!  He's starting to be confused when we just talk on the phone using our ears.  He always tries to look at the screen to see whoever he's talking to. :)

St. Patrick's Day started out with green egg breakfast burritos, and everyone in their green clothes!  Sophie didn't like the eggs at all.  Even though I assured her they tasted exactly like they always do, she just couldn't get past the color. :)  But Claire and Johnny thought it was totally cool!

Time is at a premium for all of us, so we sneak in all the quality time we can.  Johnny is getting old enough to play kid board games, and he even asked Danny to play with him one afternoon.  I'm pretty sure Danny played his hardest, but Johnny still won! :)

Danny is kind of a sentimental guy.  Or maybe he's more nostalgic than sentimental.  But there are certain things that he bonded to during his childhood, and he's still very attached to those things.  In this case, Fluffy Puppy.  Danny loved this backpack!  Grandma recently found it at her house, and sent it back to us.  Admittedly, Danny has a hard time letting Johnny play with Fluffy!  But he allows it every once in a while...if Johnny's supervised. :)

Remember our visit from our buddy Michael Alisa?  Well, Aunt Katie was watching TV when she saw that Michael was doing a media spot on BYUtv Sports.  Well, look what's on his wrist!  That's right!  He's still sporting his Luke Bracelet!  This guy is so our favorite. :)

Finally, at the end of the month, Lukey came home!  He was losing his hair pretty rapidly by the middle of his first round of chemo, so we gave him a haircut first thing.  Dang it if my son doesn't make cancer look good! :)

Finally, March is behind us.  And you know what?  For all my worry, it was a pretty good month after all!

A Frozen Party

For the last part of March, we were lucky enough to have Robbie, Kris, Andi, and Liam here from Colorado.  It was fun for the kids to have cousins around!  We got together as a family a couple of times during their stay, but the most fun (according to the kids) was Andi's Frozen Birthday Party.  

Luke had just finished up his first round of chemo, and we were so glad he was home!  His counts were good enough that we felt like we were safe to take him around family.  We knew he was missing everyone, and needed a good time.  And we like to get Luke and Liam together whenever we can.  These two were born just four months apart, but have hardly seen each other due to Luke's treatment.  But they're destined to be best buds.

Uncle Robbie and Aunt Kris pulled out all the stops for Andi's birthday and invited Elsa to come to the party.  The girls were SO excited!  Elsa read stories to the kids, and the kids were captivated.

Luke was just soakin' it in, with his Grandma and remote control.  He was just happy to be a part of things!

After stories, Elsa coordinated a game of musical chairs.  It took a few rounds before all the kids figured out how the game was supposed to work.  Once Johnny got the gist of it, his competitive nature kicked in.  And he won himself the last chair!

And a hug from the beautiful princess. :)  That's my boy!

Before Elsa had to leave, she taught the girls a princess dance.  I think this was the girls' favorite part.  It's not every day you get to learn a new dance from a princess!

Before the girls were ready, Elsa had to leave.  They couldn't get enough hugs!  

As Elsa was leaving, she bestowed a very magical kiss on Luke, and wished him the best of luck with his next round of treatment...

... and I think Luke was a little smitten. :)

Cousin time is so much fun!  And birthday parties are even better.  Thanks for inviting us for your birthday, Andi!

Happy Birthday!

Special Visitors

Luke and Danny had some very special visitors today!  Michael Alisa (LB) and Jordan Johnson (DB) came to visit Luke and Danny.  Our own personal Cougars!  We had so much fun talking with these two guys.  They were so cool, and so interested in Luke and our family.  They even brought Danny...er...I mean Luke, a ball signed by the whole team! :)  We had a Luke Bracelet to give to each of them in return.  I think it was a pretty fair trade. :)  

The neatest part of the whole visit was actually after we got home.  Danny's little sister Katie started following Michael Alisa on Instagram.  Turns out, he posted his picture of Luke as soon as he left, and put Luke's blog address as his personal website and invited all his followers to register on the bone marrow registry.  How cool is that?!  That guy is officially our favorite, and we'll be his biggest fans forever.

This was such a neat thing to have happen.  Having Luke back in treatment has been harder than we thought it would be.  Though Luke is doing well, it's been more emotionally difficult on Danny and I than we had originally anticipated.  Danny's Mom was able to arrange this visit through a childhood friend to cheer Danny up.  And it did just that.  How grateful I am for these good guys, who play their hearts out for fans like us.  And then take the time off-field to be a part of our lives personally.  They've made this whole journey a bit brighter.  This is what Cougar Football is all about!

Go Cougars!

Family Date Night!

I feel like a broken record, but having Luke back in treatment was hard on the older kids.  It didn't take long before we started to feel like they needed some special time with us.  So instead of Danny and I doing our Friday night date, we decided to make it a Family Date Night!  The kids were so excited!  We decided that while the kids and I could just take the Expedition to the hospital, that wouldn't be as much fun as taking Frontrunner and Trax to the the hospital!  Plus, it avoided us having two cars down there.  Win, win. :)

I checked Claire out of school just a little bit early so that we could get to the Clearfield Frontrunner station in time to catch the train.  We had to do this right, because at that time of the day the trains only run every hour.  We'd get pretty delayed pretty quick if we missed our train!  Well, I tried to be a good mother and leave Claire in school until the last possible minute.  But I didn't take into account that my lovely girl just can't hurry!  It was a little stressful.  :)  But, thanks to some wonderfully timed stoplights, and the kids and I running to the platform, we got onto the train literally right before they shut the doors!  Phew!  We were starting things off on an exciting note. 

It was worth every bit of stress, though.  The kids LOVED the train!  I think the girls' favorite part was the fact that they didn't have to be buckled. :)    

Johnny loved looking outside as the cities just whizzed by us.  He's such a boy.

We had a wonderful trip into Salt Lake on the train!  And I loved that I got to enjoy my children instead of having to drive.

The best part of all was that I managed to get us off at the right stop, and on to the right Trax line!  Seems like a no brainer, but I've screwed that process up more than once. :)  While the Trax don't move as fast as the Front Runner, the kids still thought it was so neat!

Once we were at the hospital, the kids were so happy to get to see Luke.  We spent some time playing, but Luke wasn't feeling very well.  Chemo will do that to you. :(  So once Grandma got there, we left the smallest of the small ones and proceeded with our date.  We hated leaving Lukey behind!  We still haven't gotten used to that.  

From the hospital, we starting making our way back north.  We still had dinner and a movie to do!  We stopped in Bountiful and had dinner at The Pizza Factory.  Their family deal is such a great way to feed our family, and the pizza and breadsticks never disappoint!  We had enough time to enjoy our meal at a mostly leisurely pace, and still stop at the dollar store for movie contraband. :)

When we decided we wanted to take the kids to see a movie, we knew we had to try out the new AMC Theater that we'd heard so much about.  It was supposed to have these oversized, reclining chairs that when the arm rest was removed made giant love seats.  We got tickets for "Mr. Peabody and Sherman", and it turns out all the fuss about the theater was completely warranted!  It was awesome!  I'll never see a movie anywhere else. :)  We all cuddled up in one love seat (even though we paid for everyone to have a seat) and enjoyed the movie.  

We know that this will be another difficult season for our family.  But we grateful for all the help we are receiving that allows us to do everything we can to take care of everyone.  Even though Luke needs a lot of attention right now doesn't mean we forgot about our other three amazing kids.  We talk a lot about how strong and brave Luke is.  But I think Claire, Sophie, and Johnny are every bit as strong, tough, patient, faithful, and resilient.  What a wonderful Family Date Night!  We'll be doing it again soon, I'm sure!

Swing Set Or Play Structure?

We knew Luke heading back in for treatment was going to be rough on the older kids.  And we knew that we would be exhausted all the time, and have very little energy to entertain them.  So Danny and I decided it was time to finally get the swing set we had been looking at.  It didn't seem fair that Luke get chemo and the kids get a swing set.  But they were going to need something to do while everyone was focused on Luke!

We ordered the swing set from Wayfair.com, and Danny knew he was going to have to get it all put together himself.  He wasn't too worried about it.  Until a freight truck dropped off five boxes weighing hundreds of pounds at our home!  Ok, so that was a lot of wood...but Danny was still feeling confident. :)  We hadn't told the kids what we had ordered, and thought it would be a fun surprise.  So we sent them to stay the night at Grandma Candy's house on Friday night, and Danny arranged for his Dad and brother David to come early and help us get this swing set up and ready.  

At first, things started moving along pretty nicely.  While the boys drilled and such, I unloaded all the wood from the five boxes and organized it into alphabetical piles...as well as organized all the bags of screws and bolts.  Danny would shout out what was needed for the next step, I'd grab it and hand it to them, and they'd assemble.  It was a pretty nice system!  The hours kept on moving along...yet somehow the piles of wood didn't seem to get any smaller.

This was going to take a while. :)

I eventually had to go get the kids from my Mom's, and they were elated when they saw what their Dad and Papa were working on!  When I told the kids that they were coming home to a surprise, Sophie got excited and said, "Is Lukey home?!"...and then Claire shouted, "Is it a puppy?!".  Errr....I kind of started to feel bad about saying there was a surprise. :)  But they were very surprised and very happy when they saw the partially erected swing set...or what Danny was now referring to as a "play structure".  This was no ordinary swing set!

Most of the construction was finished by the end of Saturday night...but not quite.  Enough that the kids could play a good 2/3rds of it.  On Monday, Danny adjusted our Luke schedule and allowed some time for him and Papa to finish up.  By Monday afternoon, it was complete!  Isn't it gorgeous?  Every single piece of that wood was assembled by hand...plank by plank.  Not a stitch of it came pre-assembled.  I'd have to agree with Danny...this is no ordinary swing set.  This is a play structure! :)

Relapse Treatment

I mostly try to keep Luke's cancer stories to his blog.  I have felt strongly since he first got sick that I didn't want our family history for the time that we dealt with cancer to be ALL ABOUT CANCER.  There is still so much to our life.  But there are times, a lot of times, that the two lives are one.  

Like when we're sending Luke back into treatment.  Right after we had really started to feel like we were done.  It's a struggle to understand the Lord's timing and ways, but we have faith in his love and care for our family.  It was Fast Sunday, so we had fasted for Luke and made sure we got everyone a blessing.  It was a sweet experience for our family.  Grandma and Papa and Grandma Candy stayed after my birthday celebration was over to be a part of the blessings and to get some more snuggles with Luke.

We know we're heading into a lot of unknowns with this treatment.  But the one thing we know for sure is that it will be extremely difficult to be separated again.  It was hard the first time around, but it will be harder now.  Luke has grown up so much in the last 9 months that he's been home, and the children have become so accustomed to being together.  Danny and I have become accustomed to, and appreciated in a whole new way, being together with all of our children in our home...every night.  It feels very much like stepping into the darkness by sending Luke back into treatment.  But we feel very strongly that this is the right thing for Luke right now.  It's time to fight again to save his life.  And we'll do it together, as a family.  

We love you, Lukey!  Good luck, Son...you got this!  Before we know it, we'll be posting about your homecoming, post-transplant and cancer-free!

Mama's Birthday

Happy Birthday to me!  With this birthday, I turn 31.  How crazy is that?  But considering that I feel like I've aged 10 years in the past year, 31 isn't too shabby. :)

My birthday was a quiet one this year.  It was on a Sunday, so I was able to enjoy church as a family.  Even Luke came!  Though he didn't make it through Sacrament Meeting.  Poor little guy was in too much pain.  But I appreciated the effort. :)  We had a quiet afternoon at home, and then had the families over to our house for birthday cake and a little going-away party for Luke.  He was heading in the next morning to begin his relapse treatment. :(  But more on that later...and in Luke's blog...

The kids were so sweet to me all day, and Sophie even put a present together for me.  Such a sweetheart!

Danny did something super fun for my birthday this year, and managed to keep it a complete surprise!  Which wasn't easy...we're not very good surprise people. :)  And no, it wasn't just a sweet birthday card...

...it was a cooking class for us to do together!  I was so excited!  Thanks, Babe!

Lukey helped me pick out the cake, and he chose the red velvet cake from Costco.  I had no argument there!  

What a crazy 31st year I had, and I can only imagine what's ahead of me with my 32nd.  I have to say, I'm not finding this whole aging thing to be all that much fun.  But with my wonderful and handsome husband, and four amazing and beautiful children, I'm happy to keep going along on this ride!