Birthday Celebrations!

Last weekend was full of birthday celebrations! On Saturday we went to Grandmom and Granddad's. I'm so lucky that I get to have a party with Cade every year (we're one day apart)!! He just loves birthdays which makes it even more fun. Uncle Kevin is so fun!!!
Baby Jace is growing up! Isn't he adorable!
Cade was getting worn out with the pictures but I managed to get one with his sweet Mom!
Cade had a blast playing with Uncle Kevin and his new birthday toys! He would hardly let Kevin out of his sight!
Cade singing Happy Birthday to me!! It was really cute! Then on Sunday my family came over! It was a fun day! I can't believe we managed to get Bryce and Laney both on my lap smiling!Do they look alike or what?

Guess who's done??

Laney of course!!! She did so well on her last treatment and it was a great day at our house!! I really can't put it all into words. Now we're just waiting for her scans to be scheduled...then we can really celebrate! Thank you to everyone for being so supportive throughout this process. You helped us more than you know! Laney with her favorite nurse Glaydis!Here's Laney with Lily. She came with us to every chemo treatment and all of the nurses know her! We'd keep her in the bag until right before the treatment started. Lily helped distract Laney while the nurse accessed her port. She was very, very helpful!

Around our house...

Playing in Laney's crib! Good idea Grandma!

New weights this week: Laney weighed13.8 pounds, Bryce weighed 18 pounds Bryce working on crawling!Laney has started sitting up recently! She got it down quickly and doesn't need much support at all! She's also just crazy about playing with her feet. It's so cute! I guess you could say that she's said her first word too...'Da Da' of course! She says it over and over again (as loud as she can) just like Bryce did. :)Bryce will take steps if you hold his hands. He can walk around the couch! His favorite thing is to follow Maddie. She's in so much trouble!We had to take the bumpers out of Bryce's crib. They were giving him a little too much leverage!

This is one of the umbrella strollers that we use inside the house! It's especially handy when you're by yourself and need to get them both somewhere at the same time! You can just carry one and push the other!Bryce's big news this week is that he got his first tooth!!!! He was very unhappy for parts of this week while it was coming in but seems to feel better now! We're pretty sure that Laney is close too.

Laney update: She had chemo on Friday and did just PERFECT! Not even one cry and no sickness!! Next Friday should be her last one and then we'll do scans. We all can't wait!!! They'll keep her port in for the next 6 months and we'll continue to go for appointments often but no chemo!!!

My worst nightmare...

Ok, well maybe that was a little dramatic! But, it's big enough to deserve a post by itself. Laney has learned how to take her bow off. Everyone promised me that it would happen but I chose to believe that since I LOVE her in bows so much that it wouldn't. Well, my friends, the day has come...and life will never be the same.

Happy 1st Birthday Bryce & Laney!

I can't believe I just wrote that! This past year has flown by. We're so excited to see how far Bryce and Laney have come. We spent the big day with Grandmom, Granddad and Aunt Renee last Saturday! Grandmom had the cutest cake and decorations! They had a really fun first birthday! Thanks to everyone for making it so special!

Bryce's shirt said "It's my 1st Birthday"! I wanted one for Laney too but they didn't have one small enough! Of course I love dresses too so it was fine!

Bryce also got a haircut on his birthday! It was his second one. Grandma and Grandpa met us there! They wanted to come see them even though we had celebrated the last week!

This is Bryce and Laney's sweet nanny, Nidia! She stopped by to see them on their birthday and to bring us fajitas with her homemade tortillas! She's spoiling Kevin! She's wonderful and Bryce & Laney just love her!

Laney Update: On Thursday she went in for her LAST inpatient round of chemo. The new Children's in Plano is now open for scheduled chemo so we were ale to go there! It's a beautiful hospital and it was very nice to be close. Laney did well and didn't have too many side effects. She's very popular with her sweet smile...everyone wants to come visit her! It's fun for me to see her even make some of the older kids going through chemo smile. I just love that she has such a happy disposition through all of this. :) She'll have outpatient treatment for the next two Friday's and then we'll redo her scans. If all is well then she'll have scans every 3 months and have appointments once a month to have her port flushed. They'll take the port out after about 6 months if they're happy with the scan results! We're looking forward to that day but also very thankful for where we are. :)

February Birthdays!

Today we celebrated February birthdays at out house...Maria, Bryce & Laney! We had a great day with everyone!

Laney smiles so big almost every time she sees Bryce!

Mommy helping Bryce open his very first birthday present ever from Matt & Maria! They got them the cutest outfits. Thanks guys!!!

Sweet Laney...smiling up at her Daddy!

They're growing up!

This was a big week for Bryce! He has been able to get up in crawling position for about a week. On Friday I had just walked in the door from Laney's appointment and he decided he was ready to move! But, instead of forwards he went backwards! He went all the way from his blanket until he hit the wall. He's done it several times since then too! I think we're in trouble when he really gets moving.

This weekend he also started saying Da-Da. He says it over and over again! He doesn't seem to associate it with Kevin so we're not sure if that makes it his first word or not but it's super cute!

Uh-oh! No more room!

Laney has also has some new tricks! She started rolling over from her back to her tummy!! She typically really doesn't like tummy time but she's fine with it as long as it's her choice to turn over. We're excited to see her progressing even while doing chemotherapy. The other thing is that she's crazy about her feet! She's started playing with them all the time.

Update on her treatments... She finished round 3 on Friday!!! It went great this time and she didn't get sick like last week. The funny thing was that it made her really hyper but we'll take that! She'll have another sedated hearing test on Thursday and then we're guessing the LAST inpatient round will start on the 26th. :) She's been eating really well and was just over 14 pounds on Friday!!

Excuse the fact that she doesn't have her jeans on in this picture (we just got home from her appointment and she was really hot)...she was just so cute I thought I'd include it. I'm sure she'll love me for it later!

11 Months Old!

So, I'm a little late with the 11 month pictures...since they're 11 1/2 months old by now! Better late than never...

Bryce at 11 months (8 months corrected):
*Wears 6-9 month clothes, size 3 diapers
*Has 4 bottles a day (6-8 oz), rice cereal with juice in the mornings, and baby food at night
*He's tried all of the Level 1 baby foods and loved every one of them!
*Takes 2 naps a day (about 2 hours each) and sometimes a short 3rd nap
*Still loves the exersaucer...and always wants you watching him
*Turns himself over to sleep on his tummy
*You know when he's tired when he starts sucking his thumb...so cute!
*When he "talks" he's starting to make different consonant sounds
*He LOVES to laugh and is so ticklish!

Our camera is having trouble so Laney's came out blurry. Oh well!

Laney at 11 months (8 months corrected):
*Wears 0-3 month clothes, size 1-2 diapers

*Since she started chemo she really hasn't had much of a schedule. She runs the show...eats and sleeps anytime she wants to!

*She typically eats about 22 ounces a day when she's feeling good. She also sometimes eats some baby food at night. She's not that excited about rice cereal!

*Sometimes she tries to suck her thumb while she's having her bottle...so funny!

*Favorite toys- Jumparoo (she learned how to jump!), Lily...the frog that sings numbers

*She scoots around when she's on her back

*She's extemely happy and will usually smile really big if you just look at her! Sometimes you can't look at her when she has her bottle or she won't quit smiling to eat. :)

*She has made us so proud of her with how she's handled all of her challenges!

Round 3...

Laney's well on her way with Round 3 of her treatments! She had a bit of a rough start with her first sickness last week. On Tuesday night we saw the first signs that she wasn't feeling well and by Wednesday morning she had a fever, congestion and a severe cough. Typically with a fever we would be heading straight to the hospital. But, that was the morning of the ice storm and there was no way we were getting out of the driveway or the alley. So, they told us to wait a few hours. Kevin took her in and they gave her some antibiotics through her port. They also did a blood test and decided that even though she was sick she would start Round 3 on Thursday.

Thankfully she seemed to be feeling better on Thursday. By that night she was getting her treatment. It was about the same as last time...she was sick but ok and still smiling a bunch! The problem this time was that she was refusing to eat. They said we couldn't go home until she ate. After trips to the hospital by both of our parents with different supplies we finally figured it out. They must have mixed the formula differently than we do. Once we mixed it she ate just fine! Now we know...bring our own formula! This had never been a problem with previous hospital stays! She came home on Saturday and has done great since then. The next two weeks will be outpatient chemo and then she's done with Round 3!!!! Here's a picture of her playing just a few minutes after she got home...she didn't waste any time!

Here's a picture of Bryce in his cute PJ's from Amanda and Travis! Thanks guys!!