Daddy & Caleb :)

Caleb is so tickelish! When we change his diaper and get him dressed he laughs just because we're touching him. And there's nothing better than a babies laugh :)!

More Pics from St. Baldricks :)

So tomorrow turned into a week. Sorry :)! Here's more pics from the event.

Abbey's two main doctors are the two men getting their heads shaved. We think the world of them and seeing them up there was so cool! And the girl is a nurse on the oncology floor. Isn't she awesome?! She shaves her head every year!

It was a really neat day, but a little crazy too! Next year, Jim and I will most likely go, just the two of us. I'm a little naive and I didn't think much about it being St. Patrick's Day at a pub in downtown Cleveland! Let's just say we felt a little funny being down there with our 4 small children (actually 7 small children since my sister and her family came with us too), in the midst of lots of people who were down there to par-tay!

It was neat though seeing Jim get his head shaved while holding our Abbey. I cried (what a surprise!) They brought her (and then me and her doctors) up on stage and recognized her while the whole pub clapped, hooted and hollered. Pretty neat for everyone to actually see child who is fighting cancer there to make it more real as to what they are raising money for :).

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Daddy & Abbey at St. Baldrick's

We are off to bed, but I wanted to post this picture really quick of Jim and Abbey at the St. Baldrick's event today. Details and more pics to come tomorrow :).

St. Baldrick's - Honored Children

http://www.stbaldricks.org/kids/mypage/kidid/2910

Abbey is one of the 'Honored Children' for the St. Baldrick's event :)! Check out the link above to see.

A couple videos :)

Abbey loves playing hospital stuff. We often make believe that a sick animal comes into be treated at her hospital and she is the nurse. It's really good for her to be able to be in control of situations like this since she usually has no control over all that she goes through. I usually am the owner of these sick animals and she gives me instructions on how to play :). It always amazes us how much knowledge she has about her illness. It always comes out when we play this and she says things that she hears us talking about with her doctors. Above is a video from the other day of her giving me some background before we start playing :)

We have been getting back to church some, which has been wonderful to say the least :). Above is a video of Abbey reciting her verse that she learned in her class from a couple weeks ago.

Just a few pictures from the last couple weeks. The weather here has been warming up, which has been wonderful! We have been spending as much time as possible outside! As you can see in some of the pics, we had some days where there is still a lot of snow, yet the weather was warm. It has finally all melted. We get some crazy weather days here in Cleveland!

Jim teaching Jacob how to ride his new electric scooter (along with a friend from the neighborhood). It goes pretty fast so Jim is still running next to him until he gets the hang of it. I almost have a heart attack every time he rides it. Thankfully, my husband knows me so well so is being very cautious until Jacob is a pro before letting him ride it without help :).

The married couple above has been cruising around the neighborhood :)

Just chillin :)

We are very much looking forward to St. Baldrick's tomorrow :)! Thank you so very much to those of you who have made a donation for the event!! Jim has not only reached his goal, but surpassed it :)! Yay!! I will be sure to get lots of pictures to share with you all of Jim and Abbey's oncologists as they go bald :)! Thank you again for your support in so many ways! Love to you all :)

St. Baldrick's

We wanted to share with you a really neat opportunity that is coming up for us to help in the efforts of raising money for childhood cancer research. It's called St. Baldricks! It happens once a year, on St. Patricks Day and it's a day where thousands shave their heads for donations. The St. Baldricks Foundation funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. Government. What started as a challenge between friends has turned into a worldwide fundraiser and we're excited to be a part of it! Many of our doctors get involved in this event. The picture in my last post of Dr. B. and Dr. W., both shave their heads each year and raise money. This event takes place all over the world and we will be going to a restaurant in Cleveland with our team. Jim will be shaving his head (he's let it grow some b/c he normally shaves his head anyways :)) so if you'd like to make a donation to our team (he is on a team with a group of people from Abbey's hospital) or find out more information about the event, then click on the link below.

https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/participantid/395196

The pictures above are of Abbey just one short year ago. It's amazing to me that we actually went through that with our precious daughter and survived it. We are so thankful for fundraisers like this so they can find cures for childhood leukemia and the many other devastating forms of childhood cancer that effect so many children.

Thank you for continuing to love our Abbey and our family :)!

Clinic Day

Today was Abbey's chemo day at clinic. Everything went smoothly. Her numbers were right on and the day went without incident.

I took my camera along to get some pictures of her while we were there. In a way, it's our second home and you can see how comfortable she is. We are all very well taken care of when we go. In a weird way, it's really nice to be there. Knowing that they are thoroughly checking her out, both her blood and by exam just makes me feel good and hearing them say that she looks great is so comforting. The doctors and nurses that work at the clinic genuinely love and care so much about these kids and being with them is like being with family. We truly have grown to love them.

Abbey with her two main doctors :).

We aren't scheduled to go back to clinic for four weeks as long as Abbey has no fevers or other issues. We are now on her 5 day steroid pulse and like always will be glad when it's over.

Thanks for checking in :)!

1 Year Ago...

This Video was shot just about a year ago during our admission when we found out Abbey had the blood clot in her brain. Hard to watch, but a reminder of how far we've come! Her smile and laugh always gets us through the tough stuff. Our brave little warrior!

Be sure to pause the music :)