Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Our Christmas card to all of you out there... slightly late, but that's okay!

Merry Christmas!

We have been so busy with Christmas I have been slow on a few things. We still have our neighbor gifts in a bag that we haven't delivered. And I still haven't sent our Christmas cards out yet. I figured I would put on our Christmas letter here. Can you guess who does our Christmas letter each year?

Christmas 2008!

Crew: Hello World!! It was a tight squeeze but I think I made it here unscathed. I was born February 20th of this year and have had a pretty good time. I hear my two older brothers screaming and fighting a lot but my parents seem to be pretty cool. I just have to smile and wave or clap and they keep giving me whatever I want. In fact, the mother taught me how to say “more” in sign language. Brilliant! I’m never hungry. I eat, a lot, and then I say “mmm” and do the more thing and the pretty girl in the family keeps giving me more food. I love this human thing. I’ve been teething and I haven’t slept so well through that. I also had double ear infections twice in a 4 week period and kept my parents up all night. I thought it was kind of cool. The only problem is that SportsCenter keeps playing the same thing over and over again so I would just fall asleep after I got bored. I crawl a lot and I get my picture taken a TON but other than that life is all about the food.

Cole: Party people!! What? What? I turned 4 on July 15th and things have been pretty good this year. I have been going to pre-school and that’s fun. My world was kinda rocked in February when this little crier decided to show up and take all the attention. Then Jake got sick and everyone started focusing on him. I had a hard time with it for a while but it’s cool now. Jake didn’t act like himself for quite some time so that was tough but now we hang out/fight a ton and we enjoy doing it. My parents don’t think it’s very funny that I tease as much as I do but I think it’s great. Jake gets so mad so fast!! It’s hilarious! I spent some time waterskiing this summer and got pretty good. I love to play with my friends. I really like to drive the car with my dad and to race motorcycles too. Life is good and I’m enjoying it!

Jake: Life is good. I was diagnosed with leukemia on April 19th. It was pretty tough in the beginning because I DON’T like shots and they tried jamming all these pills down my mouth. Then all my hair started falling out and my body hurt so bad I couldn’t walk. But now I’ve realized every time I go to the hospital I get the soft bed and my dad gets the hard chair. And when I want anything all I have to do is dial 23663 and they’ll send me whatever I want. Plus they let me play video games and watch movies all day everyday…so I decided the hospital isn’t all that bad. In fact, I’ve been there every month since April! I can’t play with friends much and I’ve only been to 3 days of school but my dad says school is way overrated so I shouldn’t worry about it! My cancer is in remission and I just started my last phase which will go until June 24, 2011. I’ve got to go wrestle since I’m still in training to be a power ranger.

Heidi: 2008 has brought a few changes to our lives for both the good and bad. Crewsers is my sanity and is so precious. The cancer thing has been educational. My photography business is going really well. I wouldn’t say this but Jeff thinks my work is awesome! Raising 4 boys is still a challenge. I came home the other day and Jeff had taken the sled and was flying down the stairs on to couch cushions with the boys. He’s so mature!! He wants to move to a farm now. I just think that would be a super idea. We feel very lucky to have the challenges we’ve had. We haven’t really been many places this year. Jake’s counts have been pretty low since April so we usually stay home. I finished the Twilight series again and have a new movie crush in Edward Cullen!! Love him. We are truly so blessed and are so thankful for the friendships that we have and are grateful for Him whom we celebrate at this time of year.

Hondo: 2008!!!!! Like Heidi said, we feel so lucky. Jake is doing very well. Cole is growing and is a TON of fun. Crew is a human vacuum…but we love him! This year I was able to keep all my ligaments attached for the 2nd year in a row! I sold my motorcycle and bought a ski. Heidi kept nagging about something about growing up and responsibilities and….I can’t remember. Obviously this year was dominated by Twilight and Jake being diagnosed but there have been tons of other things we’ve been able to do and learn. We are lucky to have the family, friends and faith that we have.

Tis the Season...

To be BUSY!  You would think that life would slow down a little bit, but I guess that is just wishful thinking.  Talking about slowing down, has anyone figured out how to slow down cute babies growing?  Crew took his first step this last week and now thinks he needs to learn to walk.  He is growing up way too fast and just needs to stop!  

He is enjoying our Christmas tree immensely.   All of the decorations that were at the bottom of the tree have now moved to the top.  So, the bottom is bare.  

We were able to go on the Polar Express last week through Make-a-wish.  The boys absolutley loved it and were spoiled rotten the way only make-a-wish can do.  

KBER sponsored the trip for about 200 kids.  We met at the station and then they bused us all up to Heber where we stopped at McDonalds for lunch.

Ronald McDonald was there to play with all of the kids.  (Or Mr. McDonald as Jake and Cole call him for some reason.)

After we were stuffed full we got back on the buses and headed up to the Polar Express.  Ronald McDonald read us the book "The Polar Express" and we sang christmas carols on the way up to the lodge.




(Don't forget about the golden ticket!)
Of course, Santa was waiting at the lodge with hot chocolate and a very nice present for each kid.  They wrote a letter to Santa and then got to spend some time talking to him and telling him what they wanted for Christmas.  We were very spoiled and the boys had a wonderful time!! 

Me and Jeff were able to go to an AWESOME christmas party.  My favorite part was the sweaters.  As you can see my husband was Eddie.  He fits the part well, don't you think?


(I wonder if he is capable of making a normal face while taking a picture.  I really don't think that he is!)

As for Jakers... we are officially a week and a half into maintenance.  We now only have to go to clinic once a month where he has an iv push of chemo and sometimes, a back poke.  He is also taking a daily pill.  On the days that we go to clinic, he starts a 5 day push of steroids.  Lucky us.  We did this last week from Tuesday to Saturday.  I am still trying to figure out what those doctors are trying to do to us poor parents!  I am tempted to tell our doctor she needs to take him home those five days just to see what we have to live with and then maybe they would rethink the whole steroid thing!!  (hehe)  We have a monster living with us those five days.  Sometimes it is actually kind of funny because the smallest things set him off.  For example, I looked at him wrong one day and he told me that I looked like a witch and that he wished I had never married his dad.  It was really very funny.   The best day was the day that I was on the phone and he was yelling and screaming, so I locked him out of my room so I could hear, and all of a sudden I hear him yelling, "Open the damn door!"  I did not realize he even knew how to use that word.  Apparently, he heard it off of Spiderman 3.   Ya gotta love the kid.  Six months down, only three more years to go... 

MAINTENANCE, here we come!

We FINALLY made it!  HOORAY!  It is time to celebrate!  (If you can't tell, we are slightly excited by the news we received today.)  I just think we may have to have a party.  

We have been waiting since the beginning of October to start the last phase of Jake's chemotherapy.  For the last six weeks, his ANC has fluctuated between 0 and 300.  This week, we were told, that if his counts did not get up to 750 we were going to have to do a bone marrow aspirate to make sure everything was still okay.  Needless to say, we have been slightly worried this past week.  But he did it!  His ANC is at 1200 today.  It is wonderful news and we are so excited to finally be in the 'easy' part of therapy.  

That being said... thank you thank you thank you to all of you who fasted and prayed for him yesterday.  We are so very grateful for your thoughts and prayers.  We know there is no way we could have gotten this far or received such great news today without your prayers and faith.  a We have such wonderful friends and family--you have helped make this burden much lighter.  We love you and thank you! 

Must be Santa...

We went and saw Santa yesterday!  Is he not the cutest Santa ever??  Jake wants Santa to surprise him and Cole wants a Nintendo DS.  Crew is, of course, just happy to be here.  We love this time of year!  We love Santa!

"Today was so awesome, I feel like my heart's going to blow up!"

Monday was Jake's Make-a-wish declaration day.  It is a slight understatement to say that he had a good time as you can tell by the title of this post.  He and Cole walked out asking if we could go back tomorrow and gushing about how 'awesome' everything was.

Make-a-wish is fantastic...there is no other way to describe it!  They started out by sending this castle in the mail to Jake... inside is a key and an invitation asking him to come and meet them.

We got a phone call a week later and set up a time for us to come in and have Jake tell the 'wish wizards' what his wish was.  When we got there, we played a wishing game to figure out what it was he wanted very most in the world.  (Although he was very adamant that he already knew...)  He wrote down that he wanted to go on a Disney Cruise and put it in a gold tube.  Then it was time to open up the wish room with he key they had sent to him!

Inside, was a waterfall and lights that continually changed colors.  We had all written down a wish for Jake and then went around the room telling him what we wished for him.  He was then told to follow the lights with his gold tube...

He followed the lights to the back of the room, where he was supposed to put the gold tube into that cone thing...

He followed the lights again and put the cone down on a larger tube--his wish was now given to the wish wizards where they start working on getting his wish granted!

We then went downstairs and had root beer floats.  They could not have done anything any better than they did.  They made Cole feel just as special as Jake.  They asked him what his wish was and let him do everything that Jake did too.  It was a wonderful afternoon!

(We still have not started maintenance.  As of last Monday, Jake's ANC was at 0!!  Crazy.  We have been stuck at home for the last week and have not gone anywhere!  We will see tomorrow whether or not they have gone up.)

my boys take after me.

just thought I'd show you a couple of family videos with the boys taking after their dad with their sweet moves.
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/VHztMLwEQdrmwkNl38n2

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/6E0KcYwwuqVYOfL9fr55

Wrestlin'

An update for those of you that have been asking...Jake is doing wonderful! You forget what it is like to have a healthy, active little boy running around. He has started to try to run again and jump on the tramp and to just be an active kid--he and Cole are constantly on the ground wrestling with each other which has now become their favorite thing to do throughout the day. There have been a couple of times that me and Jeff just sit and stare and wonder who this kid is. We finally feel like we have our little boy back and we could not be any more grateful.
As far as his therapy goes, we are still stuck in delayed intensification. I think that we are now about 6 or 7 weeks behind schedule(I've stopped counting). His counts were still too low on Monday to start maintenance. His ANC has to be at 750--he is still down at 300. His platelets are also too low to start. We will draw blood on Monday and see if next week we are able to begin!

Tribute to the Parents

Hey this is Heidi.  I have decided we post way too much about our kids and it's time to show some respect to the true king and queen of this fam.  I have not edited all these pic's but it's time to focus on who makes this family click...so here you go.  

We have been tagged before but never done one, so here you go:

Favorite movie:

J-Hoosiers

Me-The latest Pride and Prejudice.  Jeff has tried watching it 3x's with me but has been asleep b the time we get to the dancing scene (yes, 10 mins into it) each time.

Favorite color:

J-blue

Me-red

Favorite t.v. show:

J-Inside the NBA on TNT. (He doesn't watch t.v. Oh, he does watch American Idol and loves it!)

Me-Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy.  Love

Where we grew up:

J-Flower Mound, TX

Me-Murray, UT

How we met:

J-EFY counselors

Me-I came up and started hitting on him while we were efy counselors.  What can I say I thought he was a hottie!!

Favorite sports to play:

J-waterski, hoops, golf, ping pong

Me-scrapbooking, blogging and snow skiing.  Jeff and I have a bet that I'm a better snow skiier.  He has been once and I've skied my entire life but he thinks he's automatically better than me at all sports so we're having a contest this winter.  You can all come if you want.

Type of Twilight character you are: (thanks to our friend Chris Ulrich for inspiring Jeff to do this!)

J-Emmett

Me-Esme

Things we can't live without:

J-His truck and his ski

Me-My computer and camera.

There you have it.  I don't want to put anything else on here.  Feel free to comment lots!!

Baby Fine Hair

Jake's hair has begun to grow back in. It is a fine, white blond color and so soft. (I just want to sit and pet his head all day!:)) I am shocked that it makes me sad to see him starting to get it back. Is that strange? It was so devastating to watch him lose it, and now I am sad that it is finally growing back in. I know that it means he is getting better and that we are finished with the intensive therapy, but I just love his little bald head! Cancer has become a part of who he is. It does not define him by any means, but it has made this little boy better and so strong in so many ways. This trial has shaped us into people that we could not have become otherwise...the experiences he has had with feeding tubes and pokes and medicines...that little bald head represents the difficulties he has had and who he is becoming as he gets older. It is sad for us to not have that to look at and remind us that we need to become stronger and better too.

King of the house

Is it sad that our 8 month old baby knows that he has every single person in our household wrapped around his finger?   He is our angel baby-- he has the sweetest disposition with a smile for everyone he sees.  I don't know what we would have done without him the last six months.  He has somehow made Jake's cancer easier to bear.  He came at the most perfect time into our family and has won all of our hearts!

Happy Halloween!

(Can you tell that neither boy was thrilled about having his picture taken?)  

A white tiger, a lion and a jedi knight...

little red riding hood and the big bad wolf.  (NO...Jeff was not a mouse--he was a wolf!)

We had a wonderful halloween trick-or-treating, having a costume party and eating and then eating some more.  I am so sick of candy the thought of it makes me want to puke!  The boys had so much fun, although I think that Jake was a little worn out from walking from house to house.  None of us lasted too long.  A good day...I can't believe it is already over!

We are Home!!!

We were able to come home and are so glad to be back.  Sitting at the hospital is a nightmare.  However, we do want people to know that we are nothing but grateful for the trials and opportunities to learn that we have.  Sleeping on a chair for 8 days wasn't the most comfortable thing but when you're up there you see how lucky we really are.  There are so many families that are up there for months.  There are so many families that are dealing with different types of cancers that can't be beat.  We are so blessed and thank everyone that helped us out.  Jake is doing well.  (knock on wood)  We should be done with this last phase in the next few days and then on to the 3 years of maintenance.  Heidi will put some pictures up soon.  

hospitals, boredom and Twilight

We are still here at the hospital. I wanted to leave Heidi's b-day post up so people could tell her how great she is but since everyone (a couple of my aunts) want to know what's going on, I thought I would give you the quick run down. We are here indefinitely. That could be tomorrow it could be who knows. They think he has a virus but aren't sure. All symptoms are leaning that way. He has fevers ranging between 101 and 106.5...depends on when we check his temp. The Tylenol is doing a good job of keeping his fevers in check, though. He is on an antibiotic called Fortaz. I don't think he needs it because it hasn't worked and because they don't think what he has is bacterial. He broke out with a bad rash about 3-4 days ago that kind of comes and goes with his fevers. He is in great spirits. You wouldn't know he was sick if you weren't checking his temperature frequently. He really is in a very good mood. They put our last week of delayed intensification on hold until his fever goes down. This really is the never ending process but once we're done with the last week (whenever that will start), we will begin maintenance.
What have we been doing? Nothing. We have done puzzles, played games, colored, tried to make up jokes and anything else you can think of. His a.n.c has hovered around 200 and 400 so he can't leave the room. I have read people's blogs and started Twilight. I'm not sure I'm really going to get into this book, but I made Heidi a deal so I'm going to read it.
Heidi was able to go to Timeout for Women down in Texas with her mom and a few sis's in law. She will get back today. I think she had a good time so that's good.
I'll update more for both of you that read this blog!!

Happy Birthday Heidi!!!!

Today is Heidi's birthday!! Last one before 3-0! Unfortunately, Jake and I are at the hospital so if you can call her today or go see her, please tell her happy b-day! I don't have any pictures of her but Jake and I decided to do 29 reasons why we love our "Precious Princess"!

1-Great taste in men
2-She's not a gossiper. She doesn't talk about anyone ever. I like that.
3-very spiritual. She has a strong desire to serve the Lord.
4-Great with kids. All kids love her! Even ours!
5-Loves teeny-bopper movies and books
6-GREAT BODY!!
7-She likes to waterski and likes me to waterski. (or at least tells me she likes me to ski!)
8-Very easy going
9-Except when she has something in her head, then she's very "focused" and "driven" on doing whatever she is thinking about at the time.
10-Doesn't wear a lot of make-up.
11-Great business woman. She didnt' like how a certain company charged us $100 for 4 pic's and they weren't even good so she took classes from the New York Institute of Photography and started her own business and now she's a working machine! She's my sugar-mama and I love it!
12-Very supportive of my career goals...which she doesn't really know what they are but she's still supportive!
13-Is talkative...once you get to know her.
14-Has been incredibly strong during the last 6 months with Jakers.
15-Did I mention GREAT BODY!
16-A great mom. She is really organized with the boys chore charts and being disciplined with them.
17-She "enjoys" my style of clothes. She doesn't always think I match but she still thinks I look good.
18-Does a great job decorating our house. I would have a big couch and a tv but she has given our house a "homie" feel.
19-She loves the outdoors. She enjoys camping and riding 4-wheelers as much as I do.
20-She thinks it's sexy that I'm a hunter!
21-She likes to make chocolate molten cake from Chili's runs with me late at night! No wonder I keep gaining weight.
22-She is a terrible driver. She has ran into the mall parking security guy in his golf cart and she ran over a man-hole when they were putting in a road and nearly tore off the bottom of our car. Her excuse, "we need sensors in the front of our car for when I can't see." I told her if she can't see to stop, but what do I know.
23-Very talented piano player. In fact, not to seek after a calling, but she tells me all the time she wishes she could play the piano for our church.
24-Jake says he loves mommy because "she is the beautiful princess" of our family.
25-She loves having boys. I thought she would be a very "girly" mom, but now that she's had 3 boys, I'm not sure I could see her with a girl...and now that we're done with kids, I guess I don't have to worry about that.
26-She makes friends very easily even though she is very shy. People are just naturally attracted to her...and I don't blame them.
27-She's super competitive. Heidi hates losing at anything. In fact, sometimes I cheat when we play games just so I can watch her get fired up. It's pretty funny.
28-Jake loves mom because she will play puzzles with him!
29-I think Heidi has the best smile and laugh in the world.
Oh, and did I mention she has great taste men?
I will get some pic's posted when I get home and can get some pic's off her computer. I don't have any on mine.
Happy b-day Heid!

We're still here!

Jake and I (Hondo) are still here just having a good ol' time. All of his blood work has come back negative for infection. His chest x-rays are all good. The only problem is he keeps spiking fevers. They have been as high as 105 (this morning). His counts have dropped in the last few days and he got blood yesterday but the counts didn't really change much. So they took some more blood this morning just to make sure there were no errors. They aren't sure why he keeps spiking fevers which is a little concerning but we're hoping that the new antibiotic he's getting today coupled with the other antibiotics he's been on, with higher counts, should (hopefully) do the trick. It's kind of a pain in the neck because we are just here indefinitely and they don't really know what's wrong and our doc is out of town for another 2 weeks. If they knew what they were treating it would make things easier but since they're just guessing it makes things frustrating. Hopefully, his a.n.c. will be higher and the meds work. We'll see.
Don't worry, besides losing my tan and getting nauseous when they bring in Jake's hospital food, I am doing fine. Heidi and I have a bet that if I read Twilight she will read 3 of my Louis L'Amour's. Obviously, she is getting the better deal but I am on page 14 and I just can't put it down!!! Not really but Heidi keeps telling me that will happen. I'll keep you updated.

So I lied...

Okay, so I guess we totally lied.  We are back in the hospital and once again, totally off all meds, except for antibiotics.  So fun.  Jake started to complain of a sore throat last night and had a slight fever.  We kept putting off calling, thinking it would just go away, but lo and behold, it didn't!  Jeff drove him up to Primary's where they did a CBC and checked all his vitals. If his ANC is above 500, he is able to go home and we were so glad to hear that it is at 1500.  The problem that came into play was that his vitals were terrible.  His heart rate was way too fast and they were worried that his blood was not getting enough oxygen to it.  They called a code red on him.  Not quite sure what it means yet...we are still trying to figure it out.  All that we know is two seconds later, the room was swimming with doctors.  And that is what finalized our stay in the hospital!  We are now just waiting for his fever to break... it has to be gone for 24 hours, and his cultures have to come back negative for 48 hours.  His fever is still spiking between 102 and 103 degrees.  His vitals have been fine ever since last night.  Fun stuff. 

Delayed Intensification Part 2

We finally made it!  Hooray!  It feels so good to be doing something again... we are getting so close to the end, it was so frustrating to have to keep putting Jake's treatments off for so many weeks.  Our home health nurse came on Monday to do a CBC and his counts had raised from 300 to 1700!  After a month of waiting, we were ready to start part two of this nasty phase!  We went up to clinic on Tuesday and took some pictures of what Jakers does each week.  

When we first arrive, he gets weighed, measured, blood pressure taken and his temp.  We will have you know, that our sweet boy has gained a whole six and a half pounds in the last four weeks!  He is almost up to his weight when he was first diagnosed.  The lowest he had dropped was 33 pounds and he is now up to 42.6.  He looks so good!

This is Jake's oncologist, Dr. Jenny Wright.  Love her!  I know we are biased but we think she is the best!

After the Dr. checks him out, we are sent over to another part of the clinic where he gets sedated for a back poke.  

It is almost kind of creepy to watch.  He is completley sedated in this picture, but will talk and respond to the things you ask him.  He doesn't remember a thing when he gets done... but it is weird to watch your child be drugged this way.

They take a sample of his spinal fluid to test for white blood cells.  If there are more than 6, they become concerned and will run more tests.  Once, they are done taking a sample, he is given a dose of chemo into his spine called methotrexate. 

He was not thrilled today because we had to hold off on the food, but as soon as they were done with his back poke, he was able to watch his ipod and order whatever he wanted... in his words, the french toast, eggs and orange julius were 'DELISH'.  (It is amazing what sleep and food will do to this child.)

As soon as his back poke is done, we are sent over to infusion where he gets an IV push of chemo in his port.  (ARA-C) And then we are all done!  

It makes for a long day, but we basically only have two weeks left and we will be in maintenance.  His port will stay accessed for four more days, where we will give him his chemo at home for those four days this week and then another four days next week.  He is also on a pill for 14 days and once we are done with that we are finished!  We have a week break and depending what his counts are, we will be in maintenence.  I cannot believe we have already reached this point.  It is almost a surreal feeling.  Looking back, it felt like we would never get here.  It is hard to remember what life was like before cancer, it has become such a huge part of our lives.  And now we are almost through the most difficult part.  Crazy!