Chemo Sets in

Well, I am on day 14 of my Chemo Regimen and I can really tell that I am on chemo now. The past 3 days I have been really weak and tired and sick at my stomach. Luckily after today I get to have a one week break off so that my immune system can recover. The past few days have been so much harder than the 10 days prior so I can tell that my white blood count is really being hit. I am grateful that I will get to have a break from this chemo for awhile. So that is why you haven't heard from me on my blog lately. I am too tired and weak to even get online. I am online right now helping Cam with a school project so I decided to post really quick. Now back to bed!!

Chemo Week 2

Well I am officially in week 2 of Chemo and I am doing better than I thought. So far the biggest side effect I am feeling is fatigue. It is a big change from my up early in the morning with lots of energy Heidi but I know it could be a lot worse!!

I am getting used to the new routine of taking a lot of pills as well as taking longer and more frequent naps, or going to bed very early! The other day I went to bed before 9 pm! Wow! So my body is definitely going through a change but I feel really blessed to not be as sick as I was anticipating, at least not yet! So there is the good news for the day! I am counting my blessings!

Ski Day!

A few weeks ago our family had the opportunity to go skiing as a family and it was a great day! The weather was awesome and the snow was beautiful and the kids had a great time. We went to Wolf Mountain since it was a great place for beginning skiers.

This is the first time our whole family has been skiing together so that was really fun. I don't know what I was thinking....I really can not ski with a leg that doesn't respond to what my brain tells it to do! When I struggle to walk up the stairs sometimes it would follow suit that I really would not be able to ski at all!! I kept falling and my leg just would not cooperate. It was quite humbling!

We put the little boys in ski pups ski school for 2 hours and it worked out great. Kyler got a private lesson since there weren't too many kids and he learned how to 'pizza' and he even went on the ski lift! Dallyn was part of a small class and he did a lot of time on the moving carpet. They didn't teach him how to turn on the ski slope very well so that was a challenge later in the day, but otherwise I think it was worth taking the class.

Kaylie struggled to ski when we went last year. She really did NOT like skiing and there were a lot of tears when she found out she had to go skiing with the family. So when we told her we were putting her in ski school she was less than thrilled. We put her in the 8+ class and she had a FABULOUS teacher! This was the turning point for Kaylie because she came away from her ski school LOVING skiing! It was so great! That was what I really wanted from her lesson was that she would learn how to turn and not do pizza all the time. I was so happy to see how much Kaylie improved during the day!

More Skiing..

Cute little skier....

The older kids just took off and went all over the mountain..they had a fabulous time! I was so proud of Kaylie for learning how to turn..those lessons really paid off!

Even Kyler rode the lift but it made Mom so nervous!! Yikes! Hold on tight Scott!

Such a happy boy...he was just loving skiing!

Watch us go!

My Cameron boy is becoming quite the little skier! He was cruising all over the mountain!

Kyler had a ball and just loved going fast! He was super brave!!

I think I am a big boy like my brothers...you would never know I am just a 4 year old on this mountain!

Dallyn's favorite thing was the 'magic carpet' and he spent many hours on there...however he did get out of his comfort zone by the end and went on the lift with his Dad a lot of times!

Snow Fun!

Kyler took a snack break and played in some snow tunnels!

Kaylie took a break and pulled Kyler along with her pole along some really flat (and too slow even for Kyler) terrain. Kyler was so cute out there on his skis!

It was so rewarding to see how much Dallyn improved during the day! He really got the hang of things and enjoyed himself. It was really fun to watch him learn to turn and get more control over his skis.

Here he is with Dad riding the ski lift up...he wanted to keep skiing but we were wiped out by the time we took these photos!! So Dallyn will have to wait to do more runs till next year. Too bad we only ski once a year...we'll have to work on that next year, going skiing more often! The kids sure loved it.

Friends Reunion

It was great to get together with my friend Angie Carlile on Saturday. Angie and I were roomies at BYU eons ago! It has been 2 years since we got together so it was great to get caught up!! Angie was in town for a wedding and she brought her daughter Gabby with her. She is so darling!!

I'm so grateful for all my great friends and its been fun to get together with everyone and have a chance to get caught up!! Love you Ang!

A bear!

Cameron received his bear award at pack meeting on Thursday. I can't believe he is almost 10! Where has the time gone?

He will be advancing into Weebleos next month...my little boy is growing up! I can't believe it!

Here Cameron looks pretty happy about earning his bear and all those arrow points!! Way to go Cam!

Here is a sneak peek of our new tile back splash....just a tease...before and after photos to come later on!

Chemo Routine

Well, today marks my 5th day of chemo as I started last Thursday. I am still pretty early into all of this so I am still figuring out how it will affect me and what the side effects will be. So for now I am not really sure how things will be. I'm taking it a day at a time..sometimes an hour or two at a time!

My routine with chemo this time is very different than the chemo I took three years ago. All of my chemo drugs are oral. I don't have to do anything intravenously. The good news about that is that it is not nearly as invasive to my life. I don't' have to constantly go to the Dr. and get hooked up to an IV. So that is great! I have 2 different drugs that I take daily, a total of 11 pills. I take them daily for 14 days. Then I take a week off from one of the drugs to allow my immune system time to recover. After the 21 days then I start over again on the immune-compromising drug again. So it's kind of a routine like that until my Dr. decides yea/neigh this is working, it isn't working, etc.

So, that's the update on me and my crazy life. I am grateful there are more treatment options out there for me, although I'm not thrilled about the idea of chemo to my brain, I'm grateful that there are drugs out there that may be able to help me!!

So we are keeping our fingers crossed that this Xeloda and Tykerb mix will have more impact on the growth of this tumor than my radio surgeries have!!

Ryan's Family

PS...Ryan's family came to the baby blessing too..he just had to leave to the airport so he wasn't able to stay for photos afterwards so they took photos ahead of time! So that's why I'm adding the photo after the fact!! We were so grateful the Blacks were able to come too!

Hayley's Blessing

Hayley was blessed on Sunday and it was great to be there for this special event. She looked so darling in her beautiful white dress and this darling flower! I even caught a photo of her smiling so I just had to share them!

I'm so grateful that Hayley is a part of Amy's family. She is just so precious!

Group Photos

We took several group photos at the baby blessing on Sunday. This is a partial group photo of some of the people that came to support Hayley's special day.

Then a photo of the Wright, Randall and Black families...

Then the darling Randall family...the girls are all so precious!

We had to get a Mother with daughters photo too!!

Happy Birthday Girl!

How cute is this darling girl? She was just so happy at her little family party on Sunday. We were all together for Hayley's baby blessing and so we celebrated Abby's birthday as well. It was so fun to be together. Abby is such a happy girl!

Here are the two amazing cakes that Auntie Tyne made for Abby's celebration! From now on Tyne is hired to make all of the family cakes..it was so darling and so yummy!!

Uncle Scott was singing 'popcorn popping' again and again and again at Abby's request...

Here she is singing 'again and again and again' with cousin Cameron. She could have sung all day with Cameron. It was very cute!

Cake Time!

Abby's Aunt Tyne is a baker and she makes wonderful cakes!! She created this one for Abby's 2nd birthday since she is such an Elmo fan!
Isn't it just darling? I LOVE the nose..so very fun!

As you can see Abby was so very excited about this cake, she stuck her fingers right in it saying hello to Elmo!

Tyne made her a little cake as well for her to put her 2 candles on and it said "Happy Birthday Abby". At first we thought she might want to put her hands in the cake and make a mess but she definitely didn't want to do that..she just poked at it a bit and then started to fuss. So we didn't get any great 'make a huge mess' photos unfortunately!! =) The cake was SO good though....I'm not a cake fan but Tyne's cakes are definitely an exception to that rule!!

Reading with Uncle Scott

Abby was just so cute she kept climbing back up on Scott's lap to read books with him. She is just such a go, go, go girl and so very friendly! I just had to snap a few photos of them reading together. She would line each of the books up as they read them together, so sweet!

Here are a few more photos of Abby enjoying opening her birthday gifts on Sunday.