Lots of catch up...

Random- Tanner came up to tell the girls good night dressed as a ninja lucha libre with a sign that said Hello My name is Ninja

Eva in her cheer camp- the video is too large to upload but I am sure you can imagine her moves

Ben loves to wear this ball cake form as a helmet- Tanner reminds him of it almost daily

You can feel the intense love between the two- Ben calls out to Eva all the time yellie "EEVIEE"

Grace at cheer camp. She had some great moves as well and was equally impressive

Ben loves wearing glasses- so much that he cried when we tried to take them off

Kim and I found Tanner's old 100% polyester superman outfit and cape. Ben loved it , but like always could not put down the ball

Omi visited during spring break and we all had a great time spending time with her and enjoying her company.

Grace at Timbers Soccer Camp- she didn't feel her best, but pushed on and almost made it the entire session

T started spring soccer and has been playing great. Who knows how he can see through his beautiful flowing hair.

Make-up day! I made a compromise that we could wear make-up as long as we took a shower after. I think I started a bad precident

Eva was pulling back her hair so that we could play golf. She loves to play golf and whenever the sun is out (not much lately) she asks if we can go out and play.

Ben like all of our children loves music and has a natural ability to hear a song and be able to sing it will all the words. This is one of his favorites which he sings all the time with his siblings.

Eva asked me at dinner one night how Ben got out of Mom's tummy. She then said "I know..." and proceeded to tell me how it happened. I dodged a huge bullet that night. Also as you can see at the end, Grace and her have some sibling rivalry which is usually punctuated with an evil glare and some intense screaming. Welcome to the Ujifusa's.

Booty Slammin

Sorry that I booty slammed you? Seriously? This cracked me up so much that I had to scan it and post it. Can you tell Grace is FINALLY feeling better after ending chemo five months ago? People have been so considerate to ask how Grace is doing after chemo. We really appreciate all of the love and concern, so we wanted to keep you posted.

One of my favorite quotes by Henry Kissinger says, "There can't be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full." In truth, emerging from the depths of Grace's fight with Cancer has felt almost as hard as living through it. I don't know if it's the constant worry that her Cancer could come back, the realization that we are utterly vunerable to any and every fraility of humanity, or just merely that we finally had a chance to sit back and breathe for a second. But, I will say this...the last five months has felt challenging. We have been trying to help Grace get back into school full time (which she has!) and prayed for her Platelet condition to clear up (which it has not, but is looking better), and have tried to readjust to "normal" life.

But, admist this we feel profoundly grateful that she is ok! Grace is just amazing, the way she gets through pain, fear, and hardship. Though the process of "feeling better" has been slow for her, it has been steady and for that we are thankful. Grace's platelets are still flagged as abnormally low, but they are steadily rising. The doctors have told us it may be something she lives with for her lifetime, but we have high hopes that as she regains strength, so will her platelets. Some of the chemotherapy drugs used to treat her Cancer are pretty toxic, so she has to have an Echocardiogram in April and some preemtive blood work, but if that all checks out, she will have surgery to remove her portacatheter in April. Once that is out, I think it will feel like closure and hopefully Grace will just get stronger and relish in every moment of her existence! So, she is well on her way to a full recovery! When that surgery is over, JR and I will prayerfully and thankfully take off our TEAM GRACE wristbands and tuck them away as a strangely fond memory of our encounter with Cancer.

T's great game and much much more...

Although there aren't any pictures because we were so involved in watching the game, T had a great game and pulled off a triple-double. Although I can't be sure since they don't keep stats, I am pretty sure he did. He played the whole game and had at least 20 points, 10 assists, and I think around 10 rebounds. His whole team played great and it was a great way to finish his season.

BED FORT...

The other day, Eva wanted to feed Ben some yogurt while he was in the bath. I ran to grab my cell phone that was ringing and this is what I came back to. At first I thought it was just Ben moving and Eva not really paying attention until I looked into Eva's big brown eyes and I could tell Ben was her new canvas....and what a willing canvas he was.

From Grace...

i got the flu a copel days ago oh and me grace is bloging my dad let me
and eva has bin verry funny! hope you enjoy our blog and i made it a full week at school and
full days so becuse i did that i got a sleep over it was fun have a fun week and week end
hope it snows! sinserly grace

Benjamin is getting old WAY too quickly...so quickly it was high time for his first haircut. He ended up with a cute little do, courtesy of JR.

When T was little, we called his teeth tick tacks because they were so small. Well, all his little tick tacks are making room for some serious teeth! His teeth are pleading with him to move over, even coming in over his baby ones.

Tanner's class has been studying the Roaring 20's and in conjunction held a speak easy. It was a blast to witness Tanner dancing the Charleston-kid has some moves! And, he's pretty easy on the eyes in his 20's get up!

Ready for church on the Sunday just before Valentine's Day. The girls always have to add a pinch of Diva flair with their leg pop!

Benny and Belles checking up on the neighbors. They are the eyes and ears of our neighborhood!

As you can see, life doesn't slow down. But, it is always full of fun, chaos, and momentum. Grace also went in for bloodwork on Friday and things are looking good. She is very steadily gaining strength. It looks as though her platelet condition still exists and perhaps will be something she lives with for the rest of her life, but it isn't getting worse right now and that's hopeful. So, it looks as though we can go forward with her Portacatheter removal as soon as we are comfortable with it. Grace is really nervous and doesn't want to just yet, but the doctor is concerned that leaving it in will now cause more risk than help, so we are trying to help her adjust to the idea of surgery again. We are feeling more and more comfortable letting go of living with Cancer and loving feeling more like a "normal" family....of course normal is very relative!