My haircut

My hair has always been SUPER thick, so when it started falling out it took about 2 weeks for it to look really bad. I was shocked when I went to church after a week of it falling out and I was the only one who knew. I kept getting asked if my hair had started falling out yet. But when it came time for my next round of chemo and my sister came down we all thought it would be a good idea to finally cut it, well shave it. So Emily cut my hair while Arli took some pictures. I think she did a good job. I thought I would dread being bald, and in the pictures you can some what see the worry in my eyes, and went out and bought wigs. Well let me tell you those were a waste of money. I did not like how hot they were or that they were REALLY itchy. So I just bought a bunch of bandannas and scarves and wore those. Then I finally got the courage to wear baby head bands and I wish I would have done that first because I love it. Although I probably would have gotten sun burned on my head. Which by the way that has happened alot. I would wear sunscreen and a bandanna and my head would still get sunburned. Another downside of loosing my hair was the fact that it would fall out and be EVERYWHERE! I was still finding hair for about 3weeks after I shaved my head. But on the plus side I don't have to worry about getting hair in food when I cook dinner.

Cutting off what was left after it falling out

Getting ready for the shave. For some reason Arli did not get any pictures of Emily shaving my head so all I have is an after pic.

After :)


In my beanie hat that my cousin, Danelle made for me.

My diagnosis

Ok so I have put this off long enough. Even though I have had a good reason for putting it off I still need to get it done.



So in the middle of March I had some issues. I actually thought I was pregnant. I mean I was nauseous, boob tenderness, super tired, my cycles have always been messed up and I was getting lots of head aches. So I went off to the dr's, well when they did the blood work they also checked my CBC because I have not had routine blood work....well ever. So when I got 2 calls within 18hrs from the dr saying that I need to be seen again and have more blood work. I was a little bit worried but made the appt and went in. That is when the lovely dr says to me..."It might be leukemia but don't worry because it may be nothing" I mean WTH you do not tell someone not to worry with that type of news. But anyways I had more and more blood work and had to go see an oncologist/hematologist. And let me tell ya she scared me even more. I get there and the first thing she says after introducing herself is "you need to get to the hospital asap! You might have to start chemo in the hospital but we need to get biopsies and cat-scans done on you today." Yeah thanks for scaring me even more.

So I get home, Arli calls, I go pick him up, we drop the boys off at my moms house and head to the hospital. I get admitted and the waiting process starts.

Well the week of h-e-double hockey sticks ends and we have another appt with the oncologist. Finally, well we got some semi good news. It was not leukemia but it is cancer. The original test they did came back a false positive for leukemia. I have Adult Non- Hodgkin's Lymphoma- Follicular. It is stage 2B which means it is in my lymph nodes throughout my body(which was why I had boob tenderness) and it is also in my spline. We caught it pretty early and most people who have it once it is gone it is gone. The treatment I am on is the top of the line treatment for it due to my age. I have to go through 6 treatments which are every 21 days. At the end of the 6 cycles I will have another bone marrow biopsy, lymph node biopsy and cat scans. We will know it is gone when my bone marrow is clean and my enlarged lymph nodes and spline go down to normal size.

SO now that I am now almost 4 treatments down(wooo hooo) I have been feeling great. I get sick after treatment for a few days and have to take a nap pretty much every day. But other than that I am good. The boys have adjusted well. They actually don't think anything of it. If anything they are happier because Mommy lets them get away with a little more stuff after treatment and they get to watch more tv too.

Obviously our lives have changed. For me it is better. I do not take the little things for granted anymore. I have been playing with the boys more and have been on the computer less so we have more family time. I have also started to think more about church and the stuff that I never really did before like read Scriptures everyday as a family, having family prayer and FHE. Those things were not done before because Arli does not go to church and has no interest to so I did not want to force it on him. So I just never did it but I have started to do it during the day when he is not home that way the boys get used to it and he does not feel pressures. It also helps to bring the Spirit into our home which I have truely noticed and love.

If you have any questions about anything please feel free to ask.

This picture was taken on my first day of treatment.

More crazy sleeping

Since AJ has started to boycot naps he ends up falling asleeep in the craziest places like the....

ball pit

the couch

the chair

and my favorite the drawer. I have no clue why he wanted to sleep in there but he did.

AJ's much needed haircut

AJ before

We decided that it was time AJ get a haircut. And let me tell you it was the best idea ever. He did awesome after he got in the big boy seat and not the little car they had there, and he looks so much bigger and more like a toddler now.

AJ after

My 24th birthday

My best friend and soul mate & myself.

Well as every birthday we went out to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. I just love that place. I had a blast just like every year. Here are a few pics from that night.

Me & my baby!

The best shot I got of AJ that night because he is starting to hate getting his picture taken.

Erik

I was blessed with the company of this very cute couple this year. My brother and his girlfriend Emily.

MMMM.....Spaghetti!

Spaghetti night is a favorite in our house. On this particular night Erik got super messy but the pictures that came from it are in my opinion the best I have gotten of him. He was so funny with his faces and the coloring and lighting just turned out great. I have actually thought about making a collage and ordering it for our house.

Sisters!....and brother!!!

So between the months of April and May I had the wonderful experience of seeing 2 of my sisters, and of course my brother. I always see him but we were able to see our sister from our Dads side of the family, Sile, who we have not seen in forever! It was such a nice visit with her. We just went out to eat and chated but it was still fun and we have decided we (meaning Sile, Kenton(my brother), Michelle(my other sister on my Dads side), myself and our 2 cousins, Ashley and Chelsea need to start our own cousins family reunion.

Erik, Kenton, Arli, AJ, Me & Sile

Me & Sile

Me, Sile & Kenton


That was in April. In may my sister Emily came down from Duck Creek and stayed the week with me during one of my treatments. It was a blast. We went shopping and saw a movie and went out to eat and were just able to bond with out too many kids and other distractions around. I mean we just had my boys which are no trouble at all since they play well by them selves (and prefer it that way most of the time) and are pretty independent. We have decided that we should take a break a few weekends out of the year and go to each others houses with out our own kids so we get to have more sisterly bonding time. It was a very fun visit and I can not wait to do it again with her. I do have a picture of Emily and I but I want to wait for a different blog post to put it in.



Good bye kisses for Aunt Emmy!
Erik & Aunt Emmy!

Easter fun take 3!

The boys' Easter baskets Eriks is on the left AJ's on the right


So on Easter sunday this year I really did not know how to encorperate the whole Easter story in our 2 young boys this year. They are both still little so I think we will start all of that next year. But anyways this year we did our own little Easter egg hunt in our house and were invited to go to my friend Camilles mothers house and have a Easter egg hunt and BBQ. We had a wonderful time and the boys loved opening their Easter baskets.

Erik finding some more eggs!
One of the only times we were able to get AJ's hair in a pony tail. He looked so cute!

Easter Fun take 2!

Of course one of the fun parts of Easter is egg dying. AJ this year had a blast and even colored some of the eggs. Erik even did a good job at putting the eggs in the dye. He only got 1 drop on the floor. It was a good thing I put newspaper under him too. I think next year we will do Easter eggs that have more to do with painting so it takes longer. I swear we went through 2 dozen eggs in about 20 min.

Easter Fun! Take 1

All of the kids. Bad quality but my camera was on the wrong setting.


Now we had a very eventful Easter so this will be cut into 3 different posts. So I had the wonderful and very fun idea of getting a few families from church together for a big Easter egg hunt and then a lunch at a local park. Let me tell you it was a blast! All of the kids got tons of eggs and we had a fun time just playing and chatting for a few hours. I think we will have to do this again next year!

AJ checking out his egg


Erik found these eggs and was happy just playing with them

AJ and his eggs

This is what my boys did the whole time after the egg hunt. They just kept opening and emptying the eggs and refilling them.

Erik is now in nursery!

When I got my calling to teach the CTR 7 class Erik still had a month before he was to be in nursery. But since the only kid in nursery at the time was AJ they let him go in early. It was a sad day for me as when I open the door to let him in I was expecting him to scream and cry just like AJ did. Well he didn't has not since being in nursery. Instead he does not even look back to say bye bye. But I do love it when I get him after the block and he comes running up to me. I just love him to peices.

The boys getting so big!

So this post will be mostly about AJ because he is the one I have noticed the most change in. We all have those moments as Moms where we just look at what our little one is doing and say to our selves "when did they get so big?" Well a few months ago I had a moment like that with AJ and keep having more. But the one I want to blog about today was when my little boy went up to the biggest slide at the park all by his self and went down all by his self. I truly had a tear moment when he told me "no" when I went to follow him up to the slide.

Now for little Erik. He is just getting so big! I have noticed alot of what he is doing at this age AJ did not do until well after 2 or not at all. He is definitely our free spirited child. He is also talking a lot better than AJ did at his age. His newest words are bubbles and shoes. And he actually says shoes the right way. I love/hate seeing him grow up. But can not wait to have him be a big brother hopefully by the end of the year. We just have to see what goes on with me after treatment.