A funny set of deviants...

Grace and Tanner are little buddies. They have so much fun together and, if Tanner can forget the harder effects of Grace's steroid on her personality, they will have sweet memories of this time and growing closer from it. They love to have sleepovers and one night when they were supposed to be sleeping we heard secretive giggles from our room. When we retired to bed for the night, we found them in our room-beautified in sleep masks (thank you Jet Blue)! When they look this cute it's hard to be mad! (we wrote earlier of Grace's surgery to insert a porta catheter through which her chemo would be administered. You can see the small circular scar where the tube went in, the line where it was placed and the bluish bump is the actual device. Hard to believe a little body can have so many battle wounds-she is so brave)!

Why?????

Eva makes us laugh! She is so funny, smart, and for a one year old is able to verbalize so many things. But, her trick of late stops us in our tracks. She now asks why! Isn't that something that is supposed to begin when a child is around 3 or so? If I say, "Eva, we cannot play with markers anymore-she says, "why"? After I tell her it is because she eats the tips off of them, she lays her head on the ground and pretends to cry. When she looks me in the eye and says, "oh un" I know she is sweetly begging for more lotion. But, I have to tell her no. What does she do? She asks "why?" Then, I have to spout off a mini dialog about how the last time she got a hold of it while I was on the phone with Grace's doctor, she managed to pour out an entire bottle and wipe it across every reachable surface. Why is a commonly used word in our household. Between three children we hear it often enough, but it still surprises us when our 15 month old shouts it out!

Chemo, leg warmers, and dancing

When Kim and I sat in the hospital listening to a team of doctors tell us what our lives were going to be like, we hoped and prayed that our daughter would be healed no matter what. We knew Chemotherapy was poison and as such we expected the worst. We expected and were grateful to have a bed-ridden child who would slowly, yet increasingly improve... There are many of those days and we are so grateful for the fact that we are out of the hospital and Grace is healing.

Today was a Chemo day. This morning Grace decided she wanted to go to school so she went to school and loved every minute of it asking to stay longer when it was done. She then went to Doernbecher to have her port accessed where they took blood, and administered two types of Chemo into her blood over the course of three hours. Yet, in true Grace form, she came home and rested for a little bit and decided she needed to dance, sing, and play. I guess even in the shadow of Cancer Grace cannot help but be herself...happy, joyful, sparkling, and energetic.

On a chubbier note Eva wore leg warmers! They were a perfect accessory for her chubby, juicy thighs. She has been an angel and loves to dance as well. Her favorite thing to do right now is to walk around our house pushing her baby in a stroller. Sometimes the stroller is filled with marbles, lotion, or hand sanitizer rather than the baby.

Tanner is still loving his new school and doing very well. He has two more soccer games to go. If they win both they will be undefeated. In his game on Saturday he had two great goals; one with his left and one with his right foot. His favorite thing to do lately has been to act out either battle scenes or football games while on the tramp. Kim and I sometimes listen as plays outside by himself yelling, making gun noises, and sports commentary. Sometimes even reenacting out the plays in slow-mo. Since T hates his picture taken the only one we got today is blurry because he escaped while we were shooting.

Random Recent Pics

I downloaded a bunch of pictures and thought I should update the blog.

We have had so much help from everyone and we are so grateful. From amazing dinners, to visitors helping with the kids and everything else, to taking our dog on vacation, to letters, emails, and gifts. We are so grateful and feel we will never be able to adequately thank all of you.






Tanner's Jogathon was a great success. Thank you for all the donations




Annabelle is getting gigantic. Here is a recent picture from Wu.

An Amazing Mother

I have taken over the blog tonight to do something I have been meaning to do for a very long time. I wanted to surprise Kim and therefore have not found a solid chunk of time to write this until now.

As many of you know Kim is an amazing mother and has such a tender heart. Since August 13, 2008 Kim has risen to the call of being a mother of a child who is suffering from cancer. She has showed me how to be strong, she has showed me how to be brave and has devoted every minute of her day to learning about Leukemia. She does not take the easy road, or the selfish one, rather she is constantly thinking about how to make our children's lives better, thinking of ways to better their days, thinking of new ways for them to be creative, and constantly trying to improve her parenting. Yet, she is also very hard on herself and for a long time blamed herself for Gracie's illness. Since we find out about Grace I think Kim has read 6 childhood Leukemia books, she has read every single word in every single handout given to us by the hospital. She is constantly thinking of ways to help Gracie and writing down questions to ask the doctors. I just want to express my appreciation for her and for all the amazing things she does. It does not have to take a family crisis to see all the amazing things my wife does, but through this I have seen strength and wisdom that astonishes me daily. She is tireless and selfless and I am so lucky.

Dating and getting married at such an early age did not lend itself to thinking about and evaluating all the minute details which make up a good marriage, a good wife, a good mother, or a good friend. Many individuals search a lifetime for a partner with these traits. I on the other hand won the lottery. I have been blessed with a wife who puts family and love above all else. I cannot express how grateful I am to go on this difficult journey with her. She is more than I could have imagined in a woman, mother and wife and Gracie, Tanner, and Eva will never know how lucky they are to have her as their mother.