Make a Wish, Dance, Jacob's Birthday, Baby, Abbey Update and maybe Vacation...

I have been a horrible blogger lately...  I usually do my blogging at night after the kids are in bed, but these last few weeks I have been exhausted and going to bed soon after the kids.  So, if you're still checking in on us, thank you!  I promise to update a little more often than I have been these last few weeks.

There's lots of fun things that have been going on here so this may be all over the place, but I am hoping to get you all up to speed on what's new.

A few weeks ago 'Make a Wish' came here to ask Abbey her wish.  We were so amazed and thankful for even the experience that we had with them that night and are very much looking forward to Abbey's wish coming true.  The night they came to our house was like a mini party and it was so much fun to have them here and get to know them.  They brought each of the kids a gift bag full of tons of goodies and it was like Christmas as they opened their gifts.  They also brought a huge bouquet of balloons so it was very festive and exciting.  Soon after they arrived, they asked Abbey what her wish was.  She was pretty shy with them at first, but she did tell them that she wanted to go to Disney World.  As the night went on though she warmed up and was pulling the ladies in her bedroom to color with her and show them her things.  They talked with us a lot about what to expect about our trip and it sounds so wonderful.  They have special villas for families with sick children and the villas sound so nice.  There are doctors and nurses working there around the clock if needed.  Everything will be included in our trip including travel, lodging, the parks and even meals.  We will get a badge to jump all the ride lines and they even have free babysitting (with trained childcare givers) in case Jim and I want to have a night away.  We will be going in May and we know it will be a wonderful vacation for our family.  Below is a picture from that night.

   

Another exciting thing that I wanted to share is that Abbey has been able to start a dance class this summer.  She is doing ballet and tap and loving every second of it!  Throughout the week she is constantly showing us different things that she learns in class and asks me every day when her class is.  We are so thankful that she has had so much energy and has been able to do some normal things like this.  She is in class with her cousin Gracie (as seen in the picture below).

A couple weeks ago we celebrated our first born, Jacob's 6th birthday.  We had a LEGO party for him (he is very into little legos!) and we all enjoyed celebrating him.  It's hard to believe Jacob is already 6!  He is such a huge blessing to our family.   

Isn't this cake adorable!  It was made by Beth who found our blog a while back and wanted to bless us by making the kids birthday cakes this year.  Not only was it adorable, but it was so delicious!  Thank you so much Beth!!

The kids painting small wooden things to carry their LEGO candy in.

Jacob got lots of new Lego sets for his birthday.  He loves putting the sets together and these last couple weeks has spent several hours at the kitchen table working on them.  The one below is a really cool castle that Jacob and daddy did together.  

And a quick new baby update...  I'm 25 weeks and feeling great.  And as you can see, the baby is growing (as am I :)  This has been a very easy pregnancy and it is going so fast.  Other than being tired at night and falling asleep the second my head hits the pillow, I have no complaints and am enjoying being pregnant and anticipating this new little guy joining our family :)  We still haven't settled in on a name, but we still have time.

And lastly, a recent Abbey update....  She has been overall doing well and feeling pretty good.  She is over her sinus infection so we are so happy about that.  Last Friday we went to clinic for a numbers check and her ANC was down more than they would like it to be.  So, they held her oral chemo for the week to give her body a break and for her bone marrow to recover so her immunity can build back up.  We have been laying low and staying home since Friday and we are praying that her numbers are back up by this Friday when we go back to clinic.  

And along these lines..... we have an amazing opportunity to go to South Carolina to stay in friends of ours condo right on the beach the first week of August.  We were so amazed and thankful when we got a call a few days ago asking if we'd like to do this as a gift to our family.  I have been talking to Abbey's nurse (who has been talking to her doctors) to see if this might be a possibility and they gave us the green light to go, but if she gets a fever and her ANC is below 500 then she would have to be admitted to a hospital wherever we are.  She hasn't had a fever in months, but it's still always a possibility and it makes us nervous.  We are praying like crazy that her numbers will be up by Friday (as we will be leaving the following Saturday) so we can be comfortable with taking her 12  hours from her doctors.  Please, please pray with us that her numbers would improve (over 750 would be great) so we can make our decision about going.  We so would love to have a week away on the beach with our family, but we need to be comfortable with taking her so far and will only feel good about it if her ANC is up.  I'll let you know Friday where her numbers are.

Thanks for keeping up with us :)