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!!

Babies, Babies, Babies....

Kevin and I have tons of friends expecting babies soon. This weekend we were lucky enough to get to go to Oklahoma for two baby showers. One was for Trinity...one of my college roommates and one was for Dan and Susan...Dan was in Kevin's fraternity. Sadly I forgot my camera at Trinity's shower but I did get a few pictures at Dan and Susan's. We had a great time and are so thankful that Aunt Amy and both of our parents gave up part of their weekend to stay with Bryce and Laney. It was the first time Kevin and I have been gone overnight since they were born. We really enjoyed seeing everyone and getting a good night's sleep! We stayed with Amanda and Travis and got to spend some time with their son Carter this morning!! He's such a cute and smart little boy...thanks for having us guys!!

Amanda, Susan (& Baby Jackson), me and Mandi

Hearing Test Results!

Laney had her sedated hearing test this week and had great results!!! They said that her hearing has not been impacted at all so far. All of the brain waves looked normal!!! They will repeat the test after each round of chemo and 6 months after she completes treatment to determine any long term issues. We are so thankful for the good news...I felt more nervous about it than I had expected to! Thanks for praying for her. I will say that she had a very rough day with not getting to eat for almost 12 hours (which is not ideal when she's very nauseous), missing her naps, getting stuck about 10 times trying to start her IV and having people poke and prod her continuously for several hours. She was certainly glad to be home and so was I!

On Wednesday she went for blood work and her white blood counts were too low to start the next round of chemo. We were actually relieved that she will get a week break with no treatments, tests, blood work, etc. In fact she won't even have one doctor appointment!!! Amazingly neither will Bryce...what will we do with all of our spare time! They'll check her counts again next Wednesday to see if she's ready to be admitted on Thursday to start Round 3.

Bryce's First Haircut!

On Saturday Grandmom and Granddad came over to hang out with Laney so that Kevin and I could take Bryce to get his first haircut! This past week he had his exit appointment with Cranial Technologies so no more head shaping band! Now he desperately needed a haircut. Here he is right before we walked in!

He sat up in his chair with no problem at all! They did have a belt around him just in case though! Farah was the sweetest lady and just loved Bryce. She did a great job while he was moving his head all over the place looking at what was going on. He did a great job and didn't cry at all!! He spent most of the time eating the cape. :) What can you do when it's keeping him happy?
She had an airplane that made noise for when she wanted him to look down. Worked like a charm!

The final product...He looks like such a handsome big boy!

Laney Update- She went for the last treatment of her second round on Friday!!! That means she's half way done! Who hooo!!!!!! This week went much better than last. She didn't cry for even a second and didn't get sick at all. She's done really well since she's been home too. Thankfully she's gone back to only waking up once a night. She seems happier and of course so are we! She also continues to gain a little bit of weight each week. She'll be up to 13 pounds before we know it. On Tuesday she'll have a sedated ABR (hearing test). As she sleeps they look at her brain waves when they make noises around her. We're looking forward to those results. Then she'll have a blood draw to check her counts on Thursday. This will determine if her white counts are high enough to be admitted on Friday to start round 3. They're guessing that she won't be ready but we'll see! As always, thank you for being such a wonderful support system for us! We appreciate it more than we can say!!!

Monkey See...Monkey Do!

Aren't these just the cutest ever! Grandmom & Granddad bought them for Bryce and Laney a while back and they just now fit. :) Thanks Grandmom & Granddad!!

Also, Laney had her outpatient chemo on Friday. She did really well at the beginning but was pretty sick by the end. I got her home and she took a good nap. After she got up and ate she was doing much better! We know a few things that we're going to try next time to hopefully help her out a bit. Most of her blood counts came back great...it's just that her white count was pretty low. So, we'll be extra careful to watch out for fever. She's having a good day today so far! Oh, and she's still gaining a little weight! She was 12 lbs 9 ounces and 24 inches. Bryce went to the doctor for a check-up last week (everything was good) and he weighed almost 18 lbs. :)

Laney Update

Laney came home from the hospital right on time on Friday! As I mentioned before, this round has been a little harder on her but she's doing better every day that she's home. She'll go for an outpatient round on Friday and then another the next Friday. At that point she'll be half way through!!!!

One funny thing...they had their first experience of both wanting the same toy at the same time! Kevin happened to set a toy between them and Laney of course reached for it right away like she always does. Well, Bryce decided that he also wanted that toy and tried to grab it too. They had a little tugging match and Laney won....and that made Bryce cry! Oh the days to come... :)

Round 2

Yesterday we brought Laney back to Children's to see if her white blood counts were high enough to be admitted this time. The counts looked much better and they checked her in!!! We were excited to get going on Round 2. She started with lots of fluids and then they gave her the chemo from 8:30pm to 12:30am. Laney and I brought in the new year with her getting a blood draw right at midnight! She did pretty well with the chemo overall. It was a little harder on her than the first round. They said that was typical though as she gets a little more worn out. Mostly she's been fussier, spitting up more and overall just seeming like she doesn't feel as well. She does have plenty of happy times too, though. If all goes well Kevin should be bringing her home tomorrow! Then she'll have 2 more weeks of outpatient chemo before she's half way done!! She's been such a sweet girl though all of this. She amazes us! Happy New Year!!

Bryce and Laney's First Christmas!!

Bryce and Laney had a great first Christmas!! Laney was feeling well and they managed to be awake and happy all 3 times they opened presents. :) We didn't get to spend time with the cousins since Laney can't be around kids but there's always next year! Here we are at Grandmom and Granddad's house for Christmas Eve. This was Bryce and Laney's first Chirstmas gift to open!!!

Granddad and Bryce playing with his new toy while Laney took a nap!

Grandmom and Bryce in his Christmas pj's and hat!

He just loved his new toy!

Laney and Bryce first thing on Christmas morning! Aren't we mean parents making them match and wear hats!!!! They were so cute we couldn't resist!

Playing with their new toys from Mom & Dad and Santa!

And then Santa showed up at our house...good thing since we couldn't make a trip to the mall to see him! He looks a little bit like Grandpa Paul!