Baby is okay!

I went to the doctor yesterday and everything is fine. Her stomach looked normal and whatever was in there was flushed out. I am very relieved!

Santa Clause is Coming to Town!

We have been having some fun! Here are some recent photos . . .










This is the only picture I could catch of Adam!

Baby's stomach is enlarged???

I had an ultrasound done today and the doctor said that the baby's stomach is enlarged. Has anyone else ever had this before?? He also said that it looked like there was "something" in the baby's stomach (kind of settled in the bottom). He said that this is strange because baby's obviously don't eat anything. The baby's stomach did look really large to me on the ultrasound. I am so sick of worrying about things!! Can anyone shed any light on this with their own personal experience or someone they know??

I am going in on Monday for a repeat ultrasound to see if it "works itself out."

Grammy

We actually made it a point to take some pictures with Grammy last time she visited. We always get so busy and don't take any pictures! My mom has been here so much this year and has been such a great help to me! I don't know what we would do without her!





I love this picture of my Mom! She really is my best friend! (Besides my husband of course - I think he secretly hates it when I say that)

Rachel's Foot

Yesterday we went to the doctor to get the cast removed and were able to see Rachel's foot for the first time. I have been having a really hard time with it. I know that it will look better with time. I know that we are so fortunate that things have gone so well. The doctors were able to remove all of the cancer and that is what is important. However, it has been hard for me to see this physical manifestation of the affects this disease has had on my sweet little Rachel. It was awful for her to see it yesterday. She was understandably very upset, as was I. Rachel has an amazing ability to confront things head on. I was trying to hug her and hide her eyes so that she wouldn't have to look at it anymore until they got the wrapping back on. She pushed me away and very firmly said, "I'm looking at it!" Her strength and her will is amazing to me. Later on in the car she said, " I didn't want to get my cast off because I knew it was gonna look like that!" I keep reminding myself that it is just a foot! It is on the very bottom of her foot - there are not too many places that would be less noticeable than that. But, the vision of what it looked like yesterday kept me up last night. I know that I will get used to it and so will she. We are so lucky! I see people in there that have had to have their entire limb removed. We are so lucky. I really am so grateful for the outcome . . . but my heart still hurts over the consequences.

Turkey Day

I wish I could say that our table looked like this but we have little kids! Maybe next year I will try harder with the table but for now it was enough for me to get everything on the table and still hot. We had Thanksgiving on our own again this year. We really do enjoy having our own traditions but today things didn't turn out exactly as planned. James got sick around 6:00 p.m. and has been in bed ever since. That really put a damper on things for me at least. We were able to salvage our tradition of watching a movie as a family and me and the girls enjoyed "An American Girl."
I have really enjoyed cooking and spending time with my girls this week. I am so lucky to have such fun girls to hang out with! Adam was moved into a "big boy bed" last night and he has done great! He wasn't very happy about it when he woke up at 5:00 this morning, but at nap time and for bedtime tonight he went to sleep without so much as a peep!
This Thanksgiving, I want to express my gratitude for the abundant blessings in my life! I am even grateful for the challenges that we have had over the last year. There have been many ups and downs for me and my memories are bitter sweet. No matter what happens, I now that I am blessed. I can look around me and see that there are so many that have greater challenges than I. The movie that I watched with the girls was about the great depression. In light of world circumstances at present, the movie was quite humbling. It could happen to us all! I am encouraged to know that the human spirit can endure much! My knowledge of the strength of faith and families and friends, takes away the fear of what we could possibly face in our life's journey.
I am looking forward to picking out our Christmas tree tomorrow and decorating our home. I love the way that our home feels at Christmas time! I do wish that it wasn't going to be 78 degrees tomorrow! It just feels more festive to at least wear a sweater and be able to have some hot chocolate while decorating the house! Oh well, such is life in Texas! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am grateful for all of the relationships that I have made throughout the years, both those that I have chosen, and those that were chosen for me! Love you all!

GOOD NEWS!!!!!

The Doctor called today and informed me that the pathology report revealed that the margins are clear (or negative)! The first margins that were tested in the OR still contained synovial cells but after they took out their second margins they were clear!! I am so grateful for the inspiration that the surgeon was given in directing him to test the tissue that ended up being positive. That knowledge lead the surgeons to re-draw their margins and give us this great result! We are all so relieved! We will just be watching to make sure that this will not come back! I cannot thank you enough for your faith and prayers! I know that it is by faith that all things are possible!!!

Rachel Bee

We are still waiting for news. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from our adventures in the hospital. As you can see, Rachel was not lacking personality.


Here is one from when Audrey came to visit.

Rachel tried crutches. She looked so cute but it is a little dangerous for a four year old! The walker was a lot safer.


The Carter Geriatric Center!!

Fired up!

I have never seen Rachel so fired up in all of my life. She has always had attitude but Whew!! She has been hot tempered since she opened her eyes. She is getting to the point where she just repeatedly says "go home!" and refuses to do ANYTHING! What a spirited little girl I have. She refuses to be coddled and cared for. Today she said that she didn't like me doing all of this "service" for her. It killed me that she actually used that word! As if I don't do "service" for her every day. I never realized that she was such a control freak. She has decided to single handedly make everyone's life on the medical staff miserable! I cannot do anything right! She wants me to lay by her but then I make her hot and "comfortable" which is bad. (Uncomfortable??) Oh boy! I anticipated that this would be hard but I thought that it would be tiring and emotionally draining, not that it would be difficult to take care of her. Everyone keeps telling me that it is this same "spunk" that will help her get better quickly. She came off of her IV in less than 24 hours of going into surgery and has really been just on oral meds today. Everyone is amazed that she was eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom on her own practically 12 hours post op, which is great considering that the surgery itself was about eight hours! James and Audrey came up to the hospital tonight and she was pretty ornery to them most of the visit. Poor Audrey is so sensitive that she had a hard time leaving her sister here under these "conditions." Rachel says that she hates our new "home!" She all but jumped out of bed and walked out the door with Daddy and Audrey tonight! We have had a few good moments. We ordered chocolate cake and ice cream and watched enchanted. Thank Goodness for CHOCOLATE! A girls best friend. (I don't know who came up with the idea that it was diamonds.) She was also happy for a brief period of time while we were coloring together. I am going to push the doctor to let us go home tomorrow. I didn't think that she would respond quite like this to being here. I think that she will relax and get a lot more rest if we go home because she will quit fighting everyone and throwing fits! I'm surprised that I can't see any red roots in her hair! Thank you all for calling and checking up on us. I think things will get better when we can go home. I am so glad that my Mom is here taking care of my little bud! Audrey has been at school most of the days but it is nice to know that she has had some normalcy. Besides, I think she likes Grammy more than me anyway. Goodnight!

4:00 a.m.

4:00 in the morning and we are up! I guess that happens when you sleep the whole day before! I was just glad that Rach slept from 11:00 to 4:00. I was so tired last night! The bed in here is SO uncomfortable, but hey, it is a bed and not just a chair! Rachel was such a bear last night! They said that anesthesia can make you irritable but it had never done that to her before. She had a lot more in her system from yesterday so that must have been what was going on. She was constantly shouting orders at me. It is so hard to watch her be so frustrated and uncomfortable and not really be able to do anything to help her. She has a cast the comes up passed her knee! She says that it is heavy and of course really annoying. She has been complaining the most about her groin area (right on her bikini line) where they took the skin graft. They had to take the skin on both sides. They just have some Gauss and small bandages on them but they are driving her crazy. Honestly, I am glad that we are in the hospital! It is a controlled environment and I can keep her away from dangers like my little two year old! Keep you posted!

Out of Surgery . . .

So we are out of surgery and in our room. It has been a very long day but things went really well. They were able to get by with only doing a skin graft. We will probably be here through the weekend but won't have to stay the full seven days. The surgeon had to take out almost twice as much as planned because after he did his original excision they tested some of the tissue and found the synovial cells in the tissue. Because of this he went twice as far and then tested more of the cells and they came back normal. They are only able to test a limited amount in the operating room and the results aren't 100% reliable. We will have to wait to see if the result come back negative (Negative is good) until next week. A negative result would mean that they got healthy tissue surrounding the area that they found the cancer cells. They spoke with us about the possibility of doing radiation if they do not feel good about the pathology report. I feel good about the way that things went. I believe that because of our prayers and faith, the Doctor was able to find the cancer cells during surgery and was able to make the decision to be more aggressive. Thank you for all of your prayers and support! We will keep everyone posted. Rachel is doing great! She is quite bossy but in good spirits. She is being a trooper as always.

Surgery Week!

This is the week of the surgery. Rachel goes in on Wednesday morning. We are hoping that they will only have to do a skin graft but we are anticipating that she will have to have a muscle graft as well. Please pray for the success of her surgery and a speedy recovery!! I am getting nervous as the day approaches, but I have faith that things will go well. Thank you all for your continued support.

Goof Ball

Adam woke up the other morning with the best bed head I have ever seen! I had to share!

Candy is too good!!

Halloween

For Halloween we went to the ward trunk or treat. We had planned on trick or treating in our neighborhood but when we got home, audrey wanted to get in the tub and they were satisfied. (Lucky us).

Audrey looked so cute as a witch! I love the way her hair turned out! We didn't even have to try to get it to do that.







Rachel wanted to be the little mermaid. I loved this costume on her little body. I had to post this sillouette.



Rachel cracks me up because she just decided that she is "over it." After she got four pieces of candy she came to me and said that she had plenty and she was ready to go.


This is Rachel's favorite babysitter Sarah. We would have her babysit every weekend if we could!

I love this picture of Rachel. She has such a sincere smile.

Adam was so hard to get a picture of! He hates dressing up! This is the only thing I could get him to wear. He looked really cute anyway.

Pumpkin Patch

The weekend before Halloween I took the kids to the pumpkin patch. We got away a little later than we wanted to and it ended up getting pretty warm! After an hour or so Rachel said that she was ready to go and get her pumpkin and go home. The kids had a good time riding the ponies but sometimes less is more. It was a short visit but we had a good time.
Here's my little poser.


Audrey has always loved horses! She would love to ride horses more.



Look at how prissy she is. She is reluctantly touching this dirty animal.

adam wore a look of consternation the entire time we were at the pumpkin patch. He hates it when the sun shines in his eyes. He needs a nice pair of shades. If only he would keep them on.

Calling in the Troops . . .

"The troops" in this case, being a one woman army, better known as MOM. I went to the plastic surgeon today to discuss Rachel's surgery in more detail. After sitting there a few minutes I text my Mom and said, "you may need to come down here." She wrote back and said, " I can be there in three hours!" I really do not know what I would do without her. The surgeon said that they may have to do a muscle graft as well as the skin graft. This would require for Rachel to be in the hospital for up to seven days. It is a lot more complicated than I had originally thought. We just have to get through this surgery and I think we may come out on the other side! I am so grateful that I can depend on my Mom - even from this many miles away! If she is here, I know that we can get through anything!

Rachel Update

Just a quick post about Rachel's bone scan. Today was a good day. We are getting more used to going to MD Anderson and the sights that I see there aren't as shocking as they were to me in the beginning. I saw a sweet family that I met my first day today. The first time I met them they had just found out that their daughter has Leukemia. As of today, she just finished her first round of chemo (three weeks) and is already in remission! I was so happy for them - I gave her mom a big hug! They still have a few treatments ahead of them but they will be less aggressive. Their little girl is the same age as Rachel and has long, brown, beautiful, flowing hair as well. Her hair was really thinned out today but she looks really good and is handling the Chemo really well. This makes me feel better if we end up on that path as well.
Rachel had a bone scan today. She tried so hard to hold still! She did a really good job after the first five minutes! She was given an injection of radioactive something or other! I was all worried about being in the room for the scan while pregnant because of the machine and then they informed me that my daughter was radioactive and that she was the one I needed to be concerned about getting to close to - YIKES! Rach is much more informed about what is going on. Today she informed my friend Stacie that she couldn't play with her little girl anymore because she has a tumor in her foot with yucky stuff that is going to make her very sick! Yuck! (Not something you want to hear your child say - and not completely true) I have never heard her say the word tumor. I have been trying to explain things to her. She understands that we are going to the hospital to keep her from getting very sick. She has a good attitude but I can see signs of her anxiety. I am trying to keep things light and "normal." Anyway, her bone scan looked normal and her doctor had encouraging things to say. He looked back through some of the other cases that they have had like Rachel's in the last several years and they are all doing great! Yeah! I just keep praying that cancer will not scare us for her whole life!

Object Lesson gone wrong . . .

Monday night for family night I decided to get creative and do something fun. We made two batches of cookies, one following the recipe and the other without. I let the girls have at it with all of the cookie making ingredients. They got to put in as much as they wanted of whatever they wanted. I think they had three or for eggs in there and a cube of butter, a little more salt and baking soda than necessary but with butter and sugar you can't go too horribly wrong. They were tasting the dough and were quite impressed with themselves. I then let them blob the dough onto the cookie sheet as haphazardly as they desired. We stuck them in the oven and I think they were quite pleased with themselves. We then had a lesson about how the Lord has a "recipe" for happiness that He has given us to follow. We talked about the components of that plan; faith, prayer, going to church, giving service, etc. We talked about how you can make up your own recipe or you can follow the one that our Father in Heaven has layed out for us. (You get the idea) We then went to check out the final products. When the girls saw what had become of their creation they were mortified! Rachel hung her head and with deep understanding said, "we didn't follow the recipe." Then they became angry! They were so upset with me for allowing them to make a mess out of their cookies! Audrey said, "you just wanted your cookies to be the best!" Then the girls asked James to taste their cookies and when he didn't like them they were beside themselves! Rachel informed us both that she was going to "break up" with Daddy because he didn't like her cookies. We had two unhappy girls! Can you say estrogen?! The moral of this story is, if you are going to use this object lesson, have the kids follow the recipe and Daddy make the yucky cookies!

Audrey in Action!!

Trailing behind . . .

Gaining on 'em . . .

Pulling out ahead . . .


Going for the Goal!

Ultimate Determination

The Face of determination (A better look at the picture above)

The strength . . .

The agility . . .

The coordination . . .

The speed . . .

. . . of an athlete.

I love this game!


Having a little fun with Audrey on this post. She is so into soccer! In this case the apple falls very far from the tree!!! Those of you who knew me in my childhood can appreciate just how far.