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!

Happy Birthday Kim!

We were so excited to devote a weekend to our lovely Mother and Wife. She gives so much to us and we had so much fun pampering her. This year the kids wanted to really be involved and bought their own presents, wrapped them, and helped make kim's cake, breakfast, and dinner. I think it was great for them to put some sweat into her birthday and get a little taste of taking care of a family of 7 (yes Belles is included). We had a lot of fun this weekend and did what we love to do best, hang out, play games, and enjoy eachother's company. Thank you for all of your nice gifts and kind words. Here are some recent videos and pics of Ben. As you can see he reaped the benefits of Kim's birthday feasts...

Ben's new phrase..."Oh yeah." Guess where he learned that. I can tell you what his next phrase will be... Eva's new phrase is "Let's do this thing!"

Eva and the Kinect

I had to film this tonight. All our kids love the new Kinect, which for those of you who are not familiar, reads your body so that you do not need a controller to play Xbox 360 games. So Eva was playing tonight and is surpisingly good and as you can see very animated. In this clip she is playing a game where you are on a whitewater raft, every time you jump the raft jumps and every time you shift your weight from side to side the raft moves left to right. As you can see Eva makes it look like a lot more fun and uses much fancier moves than needed. The whole time she is talking and moving. She got a good workout tonight!

Updates

Tanner played his guts out this saturday in a double header which ended in two defeats. Playing in the 7-8th grade league it is amazing how some players are still boys and others.....men. Tanner had two great games and always gives it his all until the last second. He is a great leader on the court and as pointguard shows his natural ability and talent. It was so much fun to watch. Ben loved watching the games and yelled "THIS" "BALL" reaching to try and get some of the action on the court.

Now to explain the glasses. Ever since Grace was young she has loved the story about my imaginary friend DEEDEE. As a kid, I supposedly, had an imaginary friend named DEEDEE who would always be around and was described as looking exactly like me, but with glasses. So every once in a while Grace decides to go out as DEEDEE and wears clear frame glasses. During our time at the basketball game she put them on Ben and he loved it. In fact, he wore them for a good 10 minutes while the girls laughed and Ben played along. Eva thought it was hilarious and kept putting them on him.

GRACE UPDATE- Grace had a checkup the beginning of this month and is doing well. Her numbers were high due to the fact that she is fighting an illness. Since this can mask her Platelet disorder, we will have to wait a few more months before doctors are confident that her ITP disorder is gone. That having been said, her surgery to remove her port is delayed as well until we are sure her blood levels are normal and her platelet disorder is gone. She has been really trying to get to school, but many days she just does not feel well. She has spent a lot of time on her bed or in ours reading or resting because she is so wiped out.

NEED A PHOTOGRAPHER?

I wanted to let everyone know that I am trying to get back into the photography biz. This is just a part time thing on the side, but if you know anyone in the area who is looking to hire a photographer I have a website that is not fully complete, but you can send them there for more information or to contact me.


https://sites.google.com/site/clearnightphoto/