AJ's 1st day of school!

This year AJ gets to go to school. As most of you know he does not talk very well at all. So he was accepted into the child find program. In this program he goes to our zoned elemtary school and is in the pre k program and goes to school every Mon-Thurs. He gets speech therapy every day and also gets to ride the bus! He loves riding the bus. he did not like it the first day though and I had to pretty much hold him down so the bus driver could strap him into the carseat. He also made the bus driver take him to his class. But now he loves the bus he loved it the second day. He really loves school and has so far learned the color red and green. His speech has also improved in such a little time.

Ok I have to admit the bottom picture is from the 2nd day of school.

My little fish

Erik is such a fish. He LOVES to swim all you have to do is put arm floaties on him and off he goes. In this video he is not even 2 yrs old and is a great swimmer for his age.

Happy 4th of July!

Since I was not feeling the greatest this year we just decided to celebrate with poppers in the front of our place. The boys loved doing the poppers this year. maybe next year we will let them do sparklers. Arli says no but I think I may just have to try and get him to agree. We shall see.

AJ turns 3!

WOW! That senctance is still strange to me, it is hard to believe that my little man is already 3yrs old. It just seems like yesterday I had him. This year we did another pool party. And it was Toy Story themed. He of course made out like a bandit and recieved way too many gifts. Since his birthday was on a Monday this year we had his party on Saturday and went to chuck-e-cheese as a family on his actual birthday.

Some fun facts about AJ

He is about 38in tall

He weighs about 33lbs

He loves Buzz lightyear and any action figure, mickey mouse, any show on PBS or Disney, to eat any fruit or veggies but hates to eat meat.

He still is not talking too much but that will change soon I hope.

I know there are a ton more facts that I will leave out for now because chemo makes you forget things alot! It really messes with your short term memory.

AJ you are such a wonderful, handsome little man. I love you so much and are so happy that you are my son.

AJ time!

Since Toy Story 3 was coming out 10 days before AJ's 3rd birthday we thought it would be fun to start doing fun stuff with each boy by themselves. So we decided to start by taking AJ to go see Toy Story 3 and let me tell you he loved it and all of the attention he got. We even had time before the movie to take him to the arcade. He fell in love with this ducky game and ended up using his tickets to get "hut-huts" or army men. I can not wait to do more individual time with each of the boys.

I am glad these circus tickets were free

Cause my boys do not seem interested.....

Yes he is eating the popcorn on the floor. But he did NOT eat it OFF the floor.

At least Arli and I had a good time.

A visit from Grandma & Bob

My grandma and her new husband Bob came out for a visit and we had a great time catching up and meeting Bob. Arli was also able to meet my Grandma for the first time which was fun. Some how I only have 1 good picture of their visit. I think they are on my grandmas camera. But here is the 1 good picture of proof they did come out.

Bob, Grandma, Dad (he is on the phone) and Kenton

Butter Boy!

Erik thought it would be fun to get into the butter that I accidently left out on the table.

At least he brought it into the kitchen before playing with it.

Bailey Madison

My good friends from church had a beautiful little girl in May and I got the privlage of taking some pictures for her. I love taking pictures of babies who doesn't. LOL She was such a great baby for her pictures. Seeing as we had her mommy and I working with her and then 4 kids under the age of 5 running around I don't think I did too bad.

Here are my favorites.

Memorial Day Fun!

We have started a new tradition for memorial day. We go to the water park in Aliante and have lunch, feed the ducks and play in the water. We always have a blast and the boys LOVE seeing the ducks and turtles in the pod there. Here are a few pics from our fun day.

Our final day of vacation

On our last day we went to Disney Land again. We just rode a few of our favorite rides and of course met disney characters. We met Mickey twice, Donald Duck, Pooh bear, Tigger, Eeyore and tried to meet Buzz. Since I knew this was our last day I was determined to have the boys, mostly AJ, meet Buzz Lightyear. Well while we were waiting in the right spot where Buzz usually comes out we were told to leave Tomorrow land. We had no clue why until later that evening. There was a bomb scare going on. Some family left a backpack in Tomorrow land theatre and the California bomb squad was called in. Come to find out it was just filled with food. But I am glad it was just a scare. But am also really bummed that we were unable to meet Buzz. Next time we go I am going to be one of those parents who makes sure to meet EVERY character. Or as many as we possibly can. We were even able to go on the matter horn with both of the boys. we sort of snuck Erik on but he LOVED it. And we watched the parade. It was so much better than last time. The have the kids go in the street and dance and play with them. AJ was one of the few kids in our area that was able to play the drum during the parade. He LOVED it.

Lego Land!

Day 3 was Lego Land. It was only about an hours drive from our hotel and was really worth it. We had so much fun. We did not ride too many rides because Erik was a little too short. But we played and played for hours with the legos and in the water area. I think that the boys liked Lego land better than Disney land because they were actually able to get out of their strollers and play for awhile. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our day at Lego Land!

I really wish this one was not blurry because I love how much he is concertrating on making something.

This water ride was really fun we went on it a few times. Although Erik was too short to go on it he was still able to participate and try to get Daddy and AJ wet. And he had a blast doing it too.

Daddy & AJ tring to get us!
Erik trying to get Daddy & AJ!

Vacation Day 2 California Adventure

We went to Disney's California Adventure for day 2 of our trip and had even more of a blast. Our first stop there was the play house disney live. Both boys loved it for some reason Erik kept pinching himself. But other than that it was a blast.

We went on a few rides there. Monsters, the new Toy Story 3d ride and of course all of the rides in the Bugs life area. We did learn though that 3d movies are a waste of money. Both of the boys would not keep the glasses on for anything. We also stopped by the little shops that showed how they make things and they had this Toy Story thing there and lets just say AJ could have stayed there all day. He actually threw a little fit when it was time to go.

We of course had to get churros

We also saw the Pixar Play Parade. I absolutely love this parade. It is so much fun another reason we had to see it was because of this guy....

And this was AJ's face the whole time we saw Buzz. He would not stop talking about Buzz. He LOVED it!

California Vacation Day 1

We try to take a family vacation every year. Last year we skipped it and bought stuff for the house. This year however, we needed a vacation. Arli and I were both physically and emontionally drained with my diagnosis. It was the best thing we could have done. I think we both forgot about me being sick, treatments and everything else and just had fun.

We took the boys to Disneyland, California Adventure and to Legoland. They had a blast! They loved everything about it. Erik loved the rides, so did AJ well the first day he didn't He would be happy to go on the ride but as soon as we were on it and it got dark he would put his head down and close his eyes. It was actually quite funny. But by day 2 he was just fine and opened his eyes during the whole ride.

Being Buzz Lightyear fans our first stop was the Buzz ride in Tomorrow Land.

Then went to all of the Fantasy land rides and had a very big scare. While waiting in line to go on the Alice and Wonderland ride Erik thought it would be fun to stick his head in the bars of the gates. And he got stuck! I was so scared. I thought we would never get his head out. But Arli just pushed on it kinda hard and out it went.

Every ride we went on the whole time we were on vacation Erik would get this look. I thought it was so funny and cute!

AJ's funny face during our first day of rides.

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.