Our BIG little Birthday Boy

We can hardly believe it.  Today Aaron turned 3! WOW! He's such a cutie. What else can I say? All he's been wanting to do for his birthday is go bowling so that's what we did. We invited just a few friends that he absolutely adores and had a blast. 

A specific present that Aaron said he wanted for his birthday was his "unk'e Agam"... and so, in 

came Uncle Adam with his posse from Utah. The kids woke up to 5 kid friendly Utah boys who ran them ragged before the 9 o'clock hour! (The boys ran my kids ragged, just to clarify.) And then it was off to the donut shop for a treat and out to the street on his new Spiderman Bike! Aaron thought it was pretty cool. Now if we could only get him to pedal things would be much easier. 

The bowling alley was lots of fun. Aaron even had an impressive

 score. He bowled an even 5 without any help. He couldn't have been more proud. At one point he even started putting one of his fingers in the holes of the ball and trying to do the stepping(see pic on left.)It obviously didn't work all that well and he fell but  he thought it was pretty cool. After a game of bowling (which took slightly more than an hour's time) 

all gathered around to sing "Happy Birthday", open presents and eat the yummy Chocolate/Yellow Mickey Mouse cake. 

Aaron loved everyone singing to him and kept looking around with his big blue eyes shining. 

He had great success blowing out the first candle and struggled on the next 2. Eventually the flames disappeared but I'm not quite sure what

happened to the 2nd one. ?  He dove right in to his presents and was excited with each new gift placed before him. This is what I love about my son. He loves life. He loves all the great new things that he gets to experience every day. He loves people and has such great manners. Most of the gifts he said "thank you" for without a reminder from me. He's such a sweetheart. 

The cake ... if I do say so myself... was superb! I didn't know what to do for his cake because all he could tell me was that he wanted a blue cake. (That's what he's been saying since Halloween! He really likes Mickey Mouse as of late so, Friday night at ohhh, about 9pm I found a great picture on the internet, Bill blew it up and there you have it...Aaron's birthday cake with blue accents. I'm pleased to say Aaron loved it, and so did the other kids. We got away with only one finger, not Aaron's, being stuck in it pre cake cutting time. (I love that I am able to do for my kids what my mom did for all of us. I could never be as good as mom was at cake decorating, but I love being able to do that for my kids, their friends, it's cool. I remember as a kid being so proud of my cake, I could tell Aaron was also.)

Thank you to all our wonderful friends that came to help celebrate. It was so great to have people who care about Aaron, and whom Aaron adores, spend time with him on his special day. It meant so much to us.

 

Fuzzy Little Duckling

Here she is. Our "other" boy. She laughs at this and says, "people think I'm a boy because of my short hair, (laugh), but it will grow long." No joke she so does not care. This child of God amazes me. We love rubbing her head, even Aaron rubs it... it is as soft as duckling fluff and thicker than down. I love watching the cowlicks grow in and witnessing the strange sleeping positions she has present themselves in her hair after a slumber.  We have received many comments from people guessing as to why our daughter has short  hair. That is if they first figure out that our children are A.) not twins B.) not both boys (you'd think the pink and purple clothes might give it away, or perhaps the jean skirt with heart polka dotted tights...hmmm). One lady came up to me and asked, "Does your daughter pull her hair out?" She was so sincere in her questioning, and hit me with it so unexpectedly, I stared at her in complete and utter amazement literally saying, "uh, uh...". I searched her face for some sort of clue as to where this line of questioning had been developed and finally answered, almost in question form, "Umm, she has cancer?!" I was completely thrown. Turns out that she was a desperate woman looking for help. Her 2 year old daughter pulls her hair out in fits of frustration and the doctors are suggesting that she buzz it. I saw her daughter later... she has a perfectly bald spot the size of a pancake on top of her head. I apologized for not being of any help to her and wished her luck.    ?!?! I've received other comments, but none so strange. "Does your daughter cut her own hair? Did you just hate doing her hair? Did she get gum stuck in her hair?" All to which I reply, "She has cancer." and then watch as the quizzical expression quickly changes to that of complete

embarrassment and sympathy. I feel kind of bad for shocking them like that, but... they asked. I think cancer would be my first question if I saw a little girl with Livi's hair, I suppose no one wants to assume the worst.  It is pretty funny how her hair is growing in. Other kids have patches or patterns as to where there hair is growing faster, but Livi's is perfectly even all over. We all LOVE IT!

Beyond the hair, she's doing fantastic. We're still slowly working her back up to full strength chemo and she seems to be handling it well. (Because of the ear infection at Christmas time her counts fell to 0 and she was taken off chemo for two weeks. They have to ween her back on so it doesn't hit her body too hard and cause her counts to plummet again.) I took her in on Wednesday for a follow up CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis to see how her pancreas and the 2 cysts are doing. We should get the results back next week at her spinal tap/lumbar puncture on Wednesday. For the CT scan she needed a line started in her port so just like the good old days I accessed her the morning of... she did so great. I must say for myself... I was faster than the nurses! Livi and I both agreed, "Easy Peasy. Piece of cake!" (She still wigs out in the onset of the whole ordeal. Needles, believe it or not, still make her very nervous.)

And beyond the disease she is cracking us up. She has discovered that she can "whistle" (see attached video), bike ride (now that she has her bike gloves, thanks grandma!), and is quite the nutritionist. EVERYTHING she eats she asks, "Is this healthy?" or  "What's good about

this?" or "What's in here that's good for me?" She asked it while eating a chocolate chip cookie. We laughed. Luckily I make mine with whole wheat flour, which made it a little easier. But we talk about fats and how certain fats are really important and what different sugars do for our bodies and protein and vitamins and fiber... and on and on and on. I swear, sometimes I think she's a sponge absorbing all this information just so later in life she can find how to prevent cancer 100% or find a cure for it. She blows my mind. Enjoy the video. She was definitely sent for something great. I feel blessed to be a witness.

New Home

At last, the post you've all been waiting for. Let us know what you think!

Aaron and Olivia LOVE playing outside in our "court". The street dead-ends at our house on the side and the house opposite us perpendicular to us. The kids have tons of great street space to play on with no worries of cars interrupting their play.

Welcome to our home!

Looking back at the front door. This is the front room space that is proving difficult for me. It's not a very large space but I want to make the best of it. I'm thinking of a couch in front of the window facing two arm chairs or perhaps another couch. I'm open to opinions.

I was very worried about the hardwood laminate that we picked out as an after market add on. We didn't ever compare it to the cabinetry or the granite. Adding the 3rd wood color of the island was also very nerve wracking for me. The result was just what I wanted. Very earthy and warm toned throughout. The stainless steel appliances and sink were a huge bonus thrown in from the home builder as incentive to this particular home being that the previous buyer fell through. Hard to keep clean? Perhaps. But I don't stress and they are very nice.

A friend found this Pottery Barn island for me on Craig's List. The kitchen was not functional for a family who cooks and bakes all the time. It is my favorite part of the house. The kids eat lunch and breakfast at the bar stools and in addition to adding much needed counter space, it's got tons of great storage.

Just beyond the stairs is a guest full bath, for all you who want to visit, and our renovated TV room

Eventually we want to get a comfy sectional for this room. Having bought a NEW house one would think there wouldn't be much to do. Well, fortunately we were lucky enough to really be able to make this room work for us. We added french doors to accentuate an entry and privacy...

...trimmed down the size of the closet opening to put in double doors so that we could put a whole in the wall to hang our TV, as flush to the wall as possible. The closet is a very large storage, craft, entertainment closet. The builder's superintendent has helped us soo much. The house is complete but he spends much time hear making sure everything is working how we want it to. He contracted out with 5 different guys to do the TV mount. They ran cable and electricity to the inside of the closet so only the TV is visible with an infrared sensor to control everything with. We are so thrilled with how it turned out. The contractor jokes with us about how much money we ended up putting in to such a small room but asks if he can bring people by to show it as an option in their models.

I love seeing the kitchen every time I walk down the stairs. I'm very pleased with how it all came together.

For this picture of the computer desk (thanks to Harrington's), and the laundry room to the left, I'm standing in our bedroom doorway with the kids rooms and their bathroom off to my right.

Our room is just right. It's a good size with vaulted ceilings in the bedroom as well as the bathroom with an oversized tub/shower. The countertop in the bathroom is even higher than normal which was a "luxury" I never saw myself spending money on, but that came with the house. I think it's great!

Livi's room is soo perfect for her. The walk in closet even has a window! It's great because she has lots of wall space to set her craft table against and doll beds etc. She even has a storage shelf in her closet, along with her dresser to help hold all her craft/game supplies!

I LOVE Aaron's room. I love the size, the colors (thank you Grandma & Papa T. for the bedding) and the beautiful bunk beds and dresser from our New Zealand neighbors. (Thank you Harrington's, we miss you!)

No matter how many pictures, it's hard to really see it. Please, if ever in town, stop on by and visit for a while.

A few of my favorite things

My last post was to be quickly followed by this.  Clearly that did not happen,  but in my defense this is the soonest I've been able to post the "fun" part of the Christmas season. (During the move, which I'll blog later, we misplaced our camera hookups and so I couldn't get my photos. Hooray, Bill found the cords!) This is a brief overview of "My favorite things" of Christmas 2008 and the New Year! (And brief in the sense that it will be short in script, but lots of pics.)

My new BIKE!

Sleepovers! And being little enough to share a twin, just because.

Early Christmas presents! (Thank you Nana & Grandpa)

Making graham cracker houses...

...and then eating them.

Snow in the desert! (The view from Red Rock Canyon)

Nurses that truly care and share their love. (Wendy & Jenni NP)

Global Ties! (Elaine & Karen on our last night together.)

Big, Huggable, Loveable, Teddy Bears!

The next generation of our families. (Josh (2) Sam and Nikki's oldest.)

A HOT husband!

Great looking family!

Gee's new toy!

Toys that they actually play with!

Gee's Baking! (And our new aprons from Papa.)

Extended Families that know no family bounds.

A Brand New House! (Full post to come.)

Doctors who care enough to be VERY thorough! (This is a 4th doc helping with Livi's persistent ear infection since Sunday before Christmas, the 2nd specialist! A huge heartfelt thanks to "Dr. Mark", in Redding for helping us SOOO much! By the way, she's finally doing great again. And her counts are up enough, after falling to ZERO (from battling the infection), that Livi got to start her chemo again after a 2 week holiday.

What's better than loved ones visiting? Being able to take them hiking at Red Rock Canyon.

On January 5th, Cara, Bill's step-sister visited us for a few days...what a blast! We already miss you Cara!