Christmas and more :)

Has it really been over 2 weeks since I posted?! Time is flying!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! It was definitely one of our best ever (I actually think it was our BEST)! The kids ages just get funner each year at Christmas and not only seeing them anticipate Christmas morning, but more importantly really grasping God's greatest gift to us... His son Jesus :)! So much to be excited about this Christmas and God's blessings truly have been poured out on us! We are so excited to be where we are in life right now.

I added a bunch of pictures below about what we've been doing lately...

We have had a lot of snow here! Jacob has already had 3 snow days (there is nothing better then snow days!!) I absolutely love the treat of getting to jump back in my warm cozy bed and letting Jake sleep in (and short school weeks rock too!)

We have had lots of visitors in our back yard! It's quite a treat to get to watch the deer from our great room!

I didn't get any good pictures of the kids playing outside in the snow with Jim, but here Jake and Micah are sitting on the heater with a blanket after they came in :).

Jacob made our Christmas Day centerpiece (minus the candle in the middle which is Twisted Peppermint from Bath & Body Works... most definitely the best smelling candle I've ever had :). He made the glass tea candle jars and the placemat that they sit on at school. He was sooo excited to give them to me for Christmas and they are just beautiful!!

Above is a picture of the kids opening some Christmas presents on Christmas Eve night after church. We celebrated with my dad and step mom on Christmas Eve and it was a lovely evening!

Jacob with his new lego set. He immediately got to work once he opened it and finished by bedtime!
Micah loves his truck!
Abbey got squinkies and a fur real little pet that is super cute!

I didn't get ANY pictures on Christmas day! So unlike me to forget to do that, but we hosted our family so I was a busy hostess! Jim videotaped most of the morning though so we have the memories captured... just not in still pictures.

But for Christmas, Abbey got an Easy Bake Oven and she thinks it's the greatest thing ever! Here's some pictures of us baking :).

Jacob and Micah got crossbows! Micah is probably a little too young for his, considering he accidentally shot me above my lip on Christmas morning! He was so upset that he hurt me, that he cried for about 20 minutes. I just kept saying I was ok (as my lip was swelling :)! We're really glad it didn't get me in the eye! Needless to say, that is a toy that he can only play with when Jim is helping him!

And look who's walking.... well, almost walking!! He's taking steps, but only a few at a time. We know he's going to take off any day so we are enjoying these last few days of him not getting into everything!! We're excited for him to walk though! He's our latest walker and we think it's cause he has so much entertainment from the other kiddos that he's usually pretty content to just sit and watch them play and run around :).

Caleb and one of his new toys!

And this silly guy has been getting drinks of water while the bath fills up! We think it's pretty hilarious :)!! He is very comfortable in the water (a little scary since he seems to have no fear with it), but he willingly puts his whole face in and the while he catches his breath he laughs!

And I saved the best for last! Here is a picture of Abbey's chemo calendar (her nurse makes it out for us each month). We live by it day to day to know what to give her and how much. Well, look below!!!! You read it right! STOP CHEMO!!! Yep... it's almost here! 8 days and counting and she will be DONE!! There are no words to express the excitement that comes with that! Truly, we are excited beyond words, and thankful and amazed and the list goes on :)!!

So here we are, soon entering 2011 and sooo much to be thankful for and look forward to! We are entering another new normal soon and we are so looking forward to what this new year has to hold! God has been so good to us! I can't even wait to be able to say WE DID IT! We are almost there.... Just 8 days away!

Happy New Year! Much love to you all!!!

Update on Abbey

First I want to say thank you for holding us up in prayer yesterday. It's amazing how much this blog has been an encouragement to us through this whole ordeal!

It has been a while since I've felt like I did yesterday. The doctors told us recently that the second most anxiety inducing time for parents is once their child stops treatment. First of course being the diagnosis, but when a child with cancer stops taking all the medications to kill cancer cells, it almost feels like that safety net is taken out and it becomes a time to see what their body is going to do on it's own. As we approach the end, we are so excited to almost be done, yet there is definitely some anxiety as we move forward and they begin watching her to make sure nothing comes back.

I have only had a few times over these past 2 years and 2 months where the fear of relapse has overtaken me and one was yesterday. It's so hard not to go back to day 1 when she starts having odd symptoms and there are definitely times where I see a bruise on her body or she has an unexplained fever that my mind immediately goes to the worst. Relapse is almost a word that I can't say. It is such a scary thought to not only have to start over, but have to go through treatment more aggressively as relapse means their cancer was stronger than the treatment. I've followed too many other children who have relapsed and to see their families have to go through it a second time, only worse is heartbreaking.

All that said, Abbey looked good at clinic yesterday. By the time we got there, her fever was down some. Her vitals all looked good and she perked up as we right away got some crafts to do to pass the time. She was given an IV antibiotic and her blood looked good. Her numbers were all on the low side, but there was nothing suspicious in her blood. When our nurse came in and told me that nothing looked funny I was finally able to breath. From what they saw, it looks like she is fighting a little virus and her immunity is border line low (her ANC should not go below 750 and yesterday it was 770) so they decided to hold her oral chemos that she gets at home and not do her IV chemo today. We were able to come home yesterday and will go back next Friday for her to get her IV chemo, assuming that her ANC is up some.

The nurse practitioner could see in my face that I was concerned and she sat and talked to me for the longest time. Our medical team truly is amazing and there really are not words to express the appreciation that we have for these people. She listened to my fears and assured me that this was very normal how I was feeling. She too had tears in her eyes as she understands the pain that parents feel as their children go through this, yet she encouraged me with lots of good information as to how well kids with leukemia do. She told me that relapse is rare, but when it does happen it most likely happens in the first year. She said that they will watch her closely, but as they look at her they aren't looking expecting to see it come back. They are expecting it to be gone and for her to live a normal healthy life. I hung on every word that she said and we walked out of there yesterday feeling a little more confident that we had beat this disease.

Thank you again for your support and love for us! Please continue to pray for Abbey and us as we will soon be in this next chapter of this journey as she will be stopping treatment on January 8th. Please pray for her to never relapse and for us to continue to know that God is in control of ALL things. Thank you!

Abbey

Please pray for our Abbey today. She has been "off" for a few days and this morning woke up with a fever. She has been very tired and falling asleep at odd times over the past few days. Her eyes just look sick to me and I can't totally pinpoint what else, but she's just not acting herself. We are heading out the door in a few minutes to go to clinic for them to check her blood and check her over. My mom is going to stay with the boys so once she gets here we'll be on our way. She is due for her monthly IV chemo tomorrow so I'm not sure how they will go about that. Needless to say, my mind is racing. Please just pray that this is a normal kid virus and that nothing more is going on. We will keep you posted. Thanks.

Another Offer from Shutterfly!

A couple posts ago I shared with you all about the company Shutterfly and how we got our Christmas cards made through them this year. They tuned out just beautiful and we couldn't be happier with them.... not to mention, they were free! If you are a blogger, and would like to receive 50 free Christmas cards yourself, you can do what I did and advertise for them on your blog (see details HERE).

And that's not all! Shutterfly just keeps giving! Today I found out that they are doing another offer for bloggers. If you share a photo project on your blog, they will send you a $25 gift certificate! Below are the details if you'd like to get yours!

"Help us (Shutterfly) spread the word. Embed a project and receive a $25 gift certificate. Here’s how:

Embed your project on a blog or Web site you own. Email an active link (no screenshots, please) to the Web page containing your embedded project to: shareproject@shutterfly.com. We will confirm placement and reply to your email with a discount code.

Limit one per customer.

How to Get this Deal

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2.View your projects

3.Choose one and click “Share Project”

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6.Send the confirmation email to shareproject@shutterfly.com

Below you can check out my latest project. It's the beginning stages of Micah's birthday party invitation and I think it's looking just adorable!

Star Squares Chocolate Birthday

Shop hundreds of birthday invitations at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Decorating :)!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a lovely day with family and we sure do have much to be thankful for this year!!! Unfortunately I took no pictures that day, but I have lots of pictures to share below. You will see that we are totally in the Christmas spirit in our home :)!

These past couple weeks have been so much fun! We are making lots of wonderful memories in our new home as we get ready for Christmas! I have never had such a blast decorating! We have Christmas music playing pretty continually around here and the lights from the trees are making things so cozy.

Our Great Room

Close up of Jacob & Abbey's stockings

and Micah & Caleb's

We've had several fires! We are LOVING our fireplace :)!

One of my favorite ornaments!

Our nativity set :). What it's all about... Jesus :)!!!!

Christmas Pictures :)

They each have a tree in their rooms. Jacob with his :).

Abbey with hers :).

Micah (above) with theirs and Caleb (below) :). They share a room... and a tree :)

It sure is hard to believe that Christmas really is right around the corner and even more hard to believe that we are a little over 1 month away from Abbey being completely done with her treatment! There really are no words to express how it feels being this close to being done. I remember the night she was diagnosed, thinking that this journey would be forever and here we are at that end. I don't think there has ever been a time in my life where I've been this happy, content and thankful and it's only by God's grace that I can say that after coming off the hardest time of our lives. God is good and oh how thankful I am that I know Him! Praying for blessings for all of you this Christmas Season :)!

Christmas Cards

We have been very much enjoying these last couple weeks as the holidays are quickly approaching! It sure is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is in a couple days and that Christmas is right around the corner. We have yet to start shopping, but our decorating is in full swing and I just started working on our annual Christmas cards.

This year I have chosen to make our cards through Shutterfly. It's amazing how easy it is to make your own card through their website and there are so many styles to choose from that you really are able to get exactly what you want. Whether you want to share just one family picture for your card, or if you'd like to have several pictures on your card, you can be sure that they will have exactly what you're looking for. And Shutterfly not only has Christmas cards, but they also have Christmas invitations if you plan on doing a party this year and even gift tags to put on your presents. If you've never checked out their website, I encourage you to take a look and see all that they have to offer :).

And for those of you who have a blog, go HERE and find out how you too can get 50 free cards this year!

Life Lately...

From fall festivals

to enjoying some beautiful weather

to Caleb's 1st birthday

to making memories as a family

to our first snow

to painting projects

to enjoying our new home

to loving on each other

to Abbey doing amazingly well

life has been great :)!

Some updates to come soon, but I wanted to share some pics of what we've been up to lately. Thanks for checking in on our gang :). Love to you all!