Stayin' busy

I have an updated version of blogger on my compute to update with.

...and the pictures are all backwards.

So, bear with me as things jump around with this update!!

Kelly's been doing great in Cross Country!

She has been in a few meets so far, and keeps beating her personal goals.

We're so proud of her.  :)

After Kelly finished the other day, Anthony was READY to go.

He was being feisty and pulling off his Daddy's hat, then dumping it back on the ground...the whole way back to our car.

Anthony in his Shamu jammies at Nana's.

We were in Seattle for Anthony's chemo this week, so we stayed the night before at Nana's.

This is Anthony trying to hide behind his DVD player at bedtime.

Before bedtime, Anthony was kicking back, doing his favorite movie-watching pose at Nana's house.  :)

Last week sometime, Kelly and I were comparing hair.

Hers was a tad bit longer, but hers was also wet.

Monday night, for our Family Home Evening, Kelly chose to have everyone chalk our walk.

Anthony with his Buzz and Woody.

Last Sunday, the girls made a fort in the front room, then took a bunch of pictures of it.

Here's their rendition of Buzz keeping the fort safe.

Anthony was getting Maggie with Josh's light sabre.

One of Anthony's favorite things to do is carry his 2 Woody dolls around. 

Today, he fell asleep in the car, holding both.

We're in a formal dressing kind of mode.

Our family was invited to speak at the Ronald McDonald House Gala.

This is a big, formal, fundraising event for the House. 

I was so excited to be invited.

We haven't done anything formal since...well, since our wedding maybe?

So, I had a specific dress style that I wanted, and I wanted it a certain way.

I found some beautiful vintage-looking silk taffeta and sewed away.

When I tried it on, it didn't quite look like my high school body in a formal gown...more like a tent. :(

After much depressed consideration and discussion with Andy, we decided that I'd buy a dress instead.

So, when the boys and I were in Seattle for overnight, I went SHOPPING and tried on at least 40 dresses.

I found THE ONE, but am not positive anymore if it is....we'll have to see how it goes.

Anyways, during that past week, the girls and I have been discussing formal dresses.

Kelly's excited to get one soon for this gala, because then she can use it for the winter dance too.

She had fun trying on my "ancient" dance dresses.

They were definitely not her style because of the "pouffy sleeves and weird waistlines."

The dress below was actually my grandmother's dress for a formal back in the early 1900s.

Lilly and Kelly ready for a big football game.

One more thing...after 5 years of having a teeny tiny dresser in our closet because any size dresser would not fit in our room (small room b/c old house and queen sleigh bed), we took out the bed frame, rotated the mattress to face the other wall, and we now have a regular dresser again!!!

Now, we just need to get a new frame so we don't feel like we're slumming it with the mattresses on the floor.  sigh...if it isn't one thing, it's another.

Childhood cancer awareness

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month.

Did you know that everyday, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer?

7 children die each day from cancer.

Do you know the ribbon color for breast cancer?

What's the ribbon color for childhood cancer?

See why we need more awareness?

Everyone thinks childhood cancer is rare.

It is.

But, we are still surrounded by children with cancer.

We are still affected by children with cancer.

With more awareness will come a cure.

I'll be posting a few things about life with childhood cancer this month.

Just to show you some of what we go through.

Keep in mind that the intensive stuff was in Seattle.

14 months worth.

Still 2 years to go of this Maintenance Therapy.

A lifetime of tests to make sure the cancer hasn't returned.

Anthony has to have blood levels drawn every two weeks.

Once a month, it's done in Seattle on his big chemo day.

The other time, it's local.

Yesterday, we took Anthony in to get blood drawn, but he was not hydrated enough.

His veins kept hiding, and they couldn't get blood.

Anthony endured 10 minutes of a needle being moved around inside his elbows, trying to find those veins.

Because the test is important, but could still wait a day, we decided to bring him home and offer water to him at every opportunity throughout the night and this morning.

Anthony fell asleep in the car.

 Waiting for the techs to get Anthony's lab orders ready.

Not a fun way to wake up.

Anthony LOVES his main tech though.

Because he drank so much, she said the veins were huge today, and we were done within a minute, literally.

On the way out, Anthony gave his favorite girl a hug and gave her victory arms, and squeals of delight.

Then, he did the sign for McDonalds.

See the coban and cotton ball wrapped on his elbow.  

Anthony is getting old enough to understand routine more.

So, to cut down on trips to fast food places, and to help him get through lab work with something to look forward to, we go to McDonalds for fries after each time he gets poked.

**by the way, the ribbon color for childhood cancer is GOLD**

Just some fun pictures.

Daniel got Anthony to sleep tonight.

It only took him about 5 minutes.

Family movie night.

Kelly was at her first football game.

This was from yesterday.

Daniel was watching Psych, and Anthony was watching How to Train Your Dragon.

They are buddies, especially now that the other children started school.

 Anthony climbed on the table the other night.

He gets into more and more mischief.

We're keeping our eye on him even more now.

Didn't think that was possible!

Whatever.

Kelly and Anthony were buddies, eating chips together on the big chair. :)


I took this picture of Daniel for some reason, but I don't remember why...he always hides when I get the camera out, so I have to post when I get one.
Andy and Josh went on a big hike on Saturday. I didn't get pictures before or after.
But, Daniel also went on a big hike. His was bigger, actually much, much bigger.
Daniel's group hiked 20 miles or so, and it was very steep terrain, with a very high level of difficulty.
My boys seem to like wearing nice, white socks on their hike then coming home like this.
And on my new carpet...yes, I raised my voice at him.
After the laundry, the socks still were stiff.

And, the bare feet.

Kelly had a picture board, but since she moved rooms and painted in different colors, she re-covered the board.

The buttons were really hard for her to figure out and not hurt herself with the needle.

But, after persevering for over an hour or two, Kelly got all the buttons sewn on and finished her board! I'm so proud. ;)

Anthony had fun with Darby.

breakdancing for Darby

Working hard is fun.

Daniel trying out the voicemaker.

When you basically lip sync, it will say the words if it's near your voicebox.

All the kids thought it was so cool. :)

Anthony figured out how to open the gate going to the stairs.

Andy had to put a chain on.

Andy, Daniel, Anthony, and I went on a bike ride today.

Anthony kept trying to pull the helmet off.

Finally I remembered that I brought graham crackers for this reason.

I gave him two and he was distracted with eating.

My nasty bike hair and beet red face after we got home.

So much stuff going on

The girls set up the couch cushions against the hearth the other day.
They had summer schoolwork to do (just a book I bought).
Anthony was having fun sitting with them.

Our friends found a Woody doll (or as men would say, action figure) for Anthony.

He had fun opening his first birthday present last week. :)

Poor Woody, the natural place for toddlers to hold him is around the neck.

We went to stay at Nana's last week too, for our monthly chemo trip to Seattle.

She had a bag of goodies too.

Nana got Anthony a Buzz pillow and some shirts.

He had fun with his new Buzz and Woody.

Anthony REALLY did not like Cars, the movie, before.

After our Disney trip though, he watched the whole movie several times at Nana's.

While we were in Seattle, our friends from Indiana were there again for a 1-year post stem cell transplant check.

We met up and went to lunch at Paseo's.

I'd never heard of it, but evidently, it's talked about on tv and in social media.

Good food.

We got to the front of the (long) line, and I saw this sign...

I don't normally carry much, if any, cash.

I asked Daniel and Josh if they saw an ATM anywhere.

Josh said he had some cash, and I asked him how much, thinking it'd be about $20.

Nope, he had $80! Extra, leftover spending money from our trip.

The place is so popular, the neighbors had to put up a sign, telling people not to go on their porch!

Brian shaved a smiley face.

Anthony had fun in the sprinklers.

We didn't bring a swimsuit or swim diapers for A, so I just let him play in the water to clean off his chip crumbs, then changed him.

The bandaid is from his chemo appointment.

I had been promising Daniel I'd take him to see Harry Potter in 3-D.

So, we went to the Pacific Science Center, for the iMax theater.

We have a friend who traveled a lot this summer.

He took planking pictures everywhere and put them on facebook.

So, Daniel planked at the giant table.

Gorgeous Science Center architecture.

The Science Center closed before the boys were done in their movie.

So, Anthony and I waited for a couple hours in Seattle Center.

We planned to go home the next day.

But, I was nervous about how the brakes on my van felt.

When we had driven over the mountain the day before, it felt like the brakes were not as tight as they normally are, and it was scary trying to turn into a rest stop.

So, we went to Nana's neighborhood Les Schwab.

Two years ago, my memory was so good, I could have told you if the brakes had been done, when they were done, and how much it cost--to a penny.

I couldn't remember if we'd gotten the brakes done in my van or not.

Evidently, we did....back in March.

But those were the front brakes.

The back brakes needed work this time.

So grateful we got them checked out and made safe though!

Anthony likes to hide behind the couch on the hearth, and get into what he thinks is mischief. ;)

We're still trying to get a good shot with Anthony in his mouse ears.

Anthony has been loving both his Woodys.

The other day, we had to take Kelly somewhere early, and he was clutching his Woody from Auntie Jenny like a security blanket the whole way.

(This picture is from before we bucked him in)

Daniel put the mouse ears on the cat.