Brayden Preschool

We had a great Sunday today. Went to go to church and the car would not start. Our neighbor gave us a ride. We got there just in time for me to give the opening prayer. I was released from my Webelos calling in scouts and asked to be the an assistant leader in Laurels. That is the 16-18 year old girls. I am so excited!!!! It is going to be a lot of fun. We came home and had dinner and made treats. Our home teachers came over and helped give Makenzie a blessing. We are so grateful for them. They help us whenever whenever we need it. :) I delivered treats to a friend and came home to mass chaos. 2 very roudy boys. They are now getting into bed. I love being able to lay with each of my kids. They love it and it gives us a chance to talk. I hate bed time trying to get them ready..BUT once they are down I look foward to laying with them. Kenzie goes in for Surgery in the morning. She is a little nervous but doing well. We know she will be taken care just like always. We are so grateful for a Father in Heaven who loves us so much. I KNOW he hears our prayers AND answers them. We have seen so many miracles. Kenzie is a miracle everyday and so blessed to have such a strong example that teaches us WAY more than we could teach her.

Here is our little stinker who just tore up his plastic bed cover. He does not like time out which is where he resides at this moment. :) I should go take a picture...too lazy. Here are some pictures of this cute little guy for the first day of preschool. :) terri

Surgery on Monday

Makenzie will have another surgery on Monday. This one should be a little quicker and easier. The neurosurgeon will insert another shunt to drain the water that is collecting between the outside of her brain and the inside of her skull. That water has begun to put a little too much pressure on her brain so it is time to get rid of it. She should only be in the hospital until Tuesday and probably back at school that same week. Pray for a smooth, complication free surgery.

Chemo is going OK. She feels good, but this chemo affects her blood counts a little more, especially her platelets. She has had to have a couple of platelet transfusions. MRIs how the tumor has been stable since surgery in April.

We still need to report on and post some pictures of summer vacation... it was loads of fun. Soon!

First Day of School

It has been too long since we have posted. Summer has just flown by. I have a lot more to post. Many vacation pictures to post. We had a great time. The kids started school on Monday. I am happy and sad all at one. Happy to find a routine again but sad I won't have my kiddos around to brighten my day. I still have one bright spot in the house. He only has one more year before he will be in Kindergarten. I am already sad about that. He is my side kick. He is fun to hang out with. He makes me laugh :).

The kids had a great time at school on Monday. They LOVE their teachers. Carson is in 1st and has one of Makenzie's old teachers. Heis so excited. He has a few friends from church in his class and he is super excited about it. Carson is very social. He LOVES to play with other kids. He makes a friend wherever he goes. Kenzie is already in 5th and she LOVES her teacher. I can't believe she is half way thru grade school. YIKES!!! High School will be here all too soon. Kenzie is happy to be able to go to school and not stuck at the hospital.

Kenzie already got a day off of school. She had 3 appointments. MRI, Neurosurgeon, and blood counts. It was a long day. I had Brayden with me and my little daycare girl. It is a little crazy. My mom came up after work and was able to help with the kiddos. Thank heavens for mommy's. I don't know what I would do without mine. :) We got some not so great news. The neurosurgeon did not like the extra fluid that is pushing on Kenzie's brain. It is bowing the center of the brain a bit and he is unhappy that he let it go this long. Kenzie will have to go back into surgery to place another shunt on the right side of Kenzie's brain. She still has the one on the left but the shunt can not drain where this fluid is building up. All I can say is yuck!!! I keep hoping there is another reason this is happening. Maybe a blessing in disguise. PLease pray that the fluid will go away before the surgery. They have to plan her counts around her chemo schedule. That pretty much sums up the week so far. Busy, busy, busy. Happy first week of school. :) terri

prayers

I wanted this to be it's own post. We really are so thankful for everything that has been done for us. We truly are grateful. One thing we know, is most important, are the prayers. We know that we have a loving Heavenly Father. It is so evident. We have been truly blessed. We are asking for more prayers. Makenzie has had some fluid building up around the outside of her skull. It can happen after a surgery like hers. Water seaps thru the skull where he had to cut and it is just sitting there. She had another MRI last week and it showed not much changed from the previous MRI. He is still watching it. She will have another scan around the time she goes back to school. If the water does not go down or away by itself he will have to do another surgery to add another shunt. We really don't want her to have to go thru that. PLEASE pray that it will go away on it's own. We know that thru faith all things are possible. Again, thanks for everything, you are LOVED! :) terri

Happy

I just want to start off saying I LOVE summer. I really don't like the heat, but something about summer just makes me happy. I LOVE that my hubby is home for the summer. Makenzie and I were talking about how most kids are not able to have their dads home for 11 weeks in the summer. We just get to be together. We hang out, play Wii, swim, go to summer movies, visit family, stay up late together, Chris and the boys fish, de-clutter (still a work in progress), have friends over. Just fun stuff. The only bummer is Kenzie having to go back on Chemo. That has kept us home for most of the summer but we really do like being home. We LOVE just being with each other. I feel really lucky because at this stage my kids really get along well. Not too many problems. Right now they are ganging up on me and are BEGGING for a dog. I am feeling bad because I am ANTI dog. Just ask my friend Karolyn, we share the same feelings ;) I once had a dream that Chris bought the kids a dog. I was so upset crying and saying, no! Karolyn won't come over now. I had to laugh. I know my kids would take care of it. They would love it. The problem is me. I am selfish. I really don't want the cost and the upkeep. We will see what happens. Me and Chris were actually arguing, um I mean disagreeing, about what kind of dog we would get. If we got one it would have to be a little dog. Chris says no way. He would get made fun of if he brought a little wimpy dog fishing or hunting. My point is that if I am the one home with it, it would have to be small. :) I can't even believe we had this conversation. My super good friend daughter Paris got a new dog. He is a cute little guy. She brought him over the other night for the boys to see. They had so much fun. Hope eveyone is have a fun summer. These pictures are for you Karolyn.

HAPPY SUMMER . :)

Blessed

Just sitting here very grateful tonight. Blessed that Kenzie has done well since her surgery. There is a sweet little family in Utah that we have watched over the last 16 months deal with a very mean aggressive brain tumor called a DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma). Most children die within the first year and very few make it past 18 months. Her name is Sadie. She is adorable. She just passed away on the 25th. Her funeral was today. If you would like to read about her story you can go to her blog.

http://www.sadiehuish.blogspot.com/

Please pray for their family. One thing that really made me cry was she was to the point where she could not communicate. She has to blink thru the alphabete so they would know what she was saying. Her wish before passing away was to get her ears peirced. She also had LDS recording artist Hilary Weeks come to their house to sing her a song. Amazing little girl.

Beam Signing

Here are a few pictures from the beam signing Thursday. I put them on here out of order and I am to lazy to fix it. :) Have a happy weekend. :)

First Day of Chemo - Beam Signing

Makenzie got a follow up MRI on Tuesday. Everything looks good. There is a little bit of fluid that is leaking up through the hole created for placing instruments to remove the tumor. It is collecting on the outside of her brain, between the outside of the brain and her skull. It has been building up since surgery. We are watching that... if it continues to build up then she may need a second shunt placed to drain that fluid off. We will get another MRI on July 8th to check on that.

The neurosurgeon gave his OK to start the chemo so Kenzie started the chemo pills (Temodar)last night. So far, so good. She did not get sick from that pill. We are praying that she will continue to tolerate this medicine well and that it will be effecting against what remains of her tumor. Please, keep her in your prayers as she takes this chemo. She will take it 5 days a month for at least a year.

Makenzie and mom also went down to the children's hospital this morning for a beam signing ceremony. They are expanding the hospital. Many kids who are or were patients at PCH placed their hand prints and signatures on two special white "beams of hope" that will be a permanent part of the new hospital. PCH really is a great place. Like they always say at fundraisers, you hope you never need it, but it's nice to know it's there.

We have had so many people help us out in so many ways over the past few years and during the last month or so. We'd love to send thank you cards to each and every person, but there are too many people... and I am sure we are not even aware of all the people who have done something to help us out. We had people watch our kids for long hours while Kenzie was in the hospital (mostly Grandmas, Grandpas, and Rachel). We had more good food brought in that we knew what to do with. Many of you visited Makenzie in the hospital and brought her (and her brothers) gifts. We have many many people, some who don't even know Kenzie that well, fast and pray for her. We've heard of kids in her primary at church who have never fasted before fast twice in one week for Makenzie... that really amazes us and we appreciate it. We've had people organize and contribute to fundraisers to help with the expenses associated with medical bills, travel expenses, and all that goes with battling major health issues. We truly appreciate all the support we've received from so many of you.

New Baby

Meet Hayden Paul...

Just a quick CONGRATULATIONS to my brother's cute family. They just had their first baby. He is soooo cute!! The kids are so excited to have a new cousin. This is the first baby we have had on my side of the family since Brayden. 4 years. That is too long. He is tiny, sweet and adorable.

Happy Times

We have failed to update the last few weeks. We are trying to find our summer routine. It has been fun having Chris around. The boys and Chris are busy playing Wii Cabella's Legendary Hunts. Brayden got it for his birthday and the boys are hooked. They are so cute being in there with their dad getting excited about shooting animals. It is a pretty cool game. There is a rifle that goes with it and that just makes it really fun.

Kenzie's MRI didn't go thru. Mix up at the hospital. They were going to start chemo this last week and then decided to wait last minute. Her neurosurgeon wants the MRI before we start. The profile came back on the tumor and it recommended the same drug that her Dr. wanted to use. It is called Temazolamide (sp?). It is a pill that she will take at home. She takes it for 5 days and then will have the rest of the month off. They are also talking about putting her on Celebrex because it reduces blood flow to blood vessels. Her tumor that was removed was filled with a lot of blood vessels. It looks like this drug has fewer problems that a lot of other Chemo drugs. Hopefully this will be the one to shrink it or destroy it. Kenzie is doing really good about the whole thing. Me on the other hand...total stress case. Since we don't know how she will react to this drug it makes me on edge. We really appreciate all the help that has been given to us. We are grateful for all the prayers, fasting and love given on our behalf. We are truly blessed.

Today was a fun day. We are starting to get our house in order. We told the kids one room a day and then we can go swim as a reward. A SUPER CUTE friend of ours is out of town and is lending us their pool. It is an awesome pool with a slide. The kids had such a great time. Me and Chris even got in despite the cold water. It took me about 20 minutes to get in. Here are the kids from today. I could not get one good picture with all the kids. I do like fun picture and I guess this is just as they are... A Circus :)