I am amazed at how quickly news travels... yes.  We are back in the hospital.  The past couple of days, Jake has not been feeling well. He started spiking a fever on Sunday.  We were told to give him tylenol and wait it out the night, if it does not go away to come in on monday.  He was admitted last night due to a 103.7 degree temp and low blood pressure.  He started antibiotics and fluids and is now feeling much better.  He tested positive for influenza b, but they are concerned he may have another underlying infection because of how he was when he came in last night.  The other concern is that if his flu bug gets bad enough it can trigger him to have severe graft vs host.  He is doing much better today but has started fevering again.  We will hopefully be able to go home tomorrow.

Last night was a rough night.  Jake was up quite a bit and at about 12:30 we finally got him settled down for the night.  A few minutes later, I heard him getting up and when I asked what he was doing I got no response.  I was tired as well and wasn't paying much attention, but the next thing I know, he had his pants pulled down and was peeing in the garbage can!  There was pee everywhere!  The kid was sound asleep.  It took me a minute to wake him up and we have been laughing about it every since.

I do have to brag about him for two seconds.  Whenever cancer kids get fevers, they have to have their nose swabbed and sucked out.  Jake has an extremely difficult time with anyone coming near his nose, I think because of the nose tube he got when he was five.  It traumatized him.  Anyways.  He was AWESOME.  And I am not exaggerating.  He did not fight them or argue or try to negotiate.  He cried but I would cry too.  Same thing with his iv.  They placed it in a spot that there was no emla cream on and we got not one argument.  Quite a long way from where we have been in the past.

January 4th 2013

One year ago today, we were sitting in a waiting room waiting for Jake to come out of surgery.  When the doctor walked in and told us Jake's cancer was back, I never would have been able to imagine where this last year would take us.  It has been a horrendously long and painful and not very good year, but we have been blessed in so many ways.  Jake's school asked me to make a video of him for a fundraiser they are putting on which was good as it gave me a deadline and made me do it.  I had been toying around with the idea for awhile, but could not make myself relive this past year.  It was horribly difficult to go through the pictures and videos again, but I am amazed at what a strong and positive kid we have on our hands.  He makes me want to be better every day.  I am sure that Heavenly Father has something very special in store for him... he has touched more people's lives in the last five years than most people do in their whole lives.  I am so grateful that I get to call him mine.

Happy Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  It went by way too fast like always.



Christmas Eve we took the kiddos to see Rise of the Guardians.  (Darling, by the way.  Loved it.)  After lunch, we took them to my dads house to spend the night and wake up to Santa!  Jeff hooked sleds up to the John Deere and pulled everyone around all night.  So cold.  But so fun.



New jammies and a sleepover.



Christmas morning.



I seriously love this child. I have no idea where he came from.  One of the things he wanted this year... that he repeatedly asked for was the book Loius Braille.  Apparently he read it in school and loved it.  It is a biography about the guy that invented braille for the blind.  He was SO excited to get it.  He is the most random child.  I am not sure where his love of science and math comes from.  Obviously not from me, and not from Jeff, but he is one smart little cookie.



Photo booth from our family christmas party:





Pretty sure the boys were most excited about giving their gifts to each other (if you can't tell by their faces and hugs to each other above) and the fact that Santa lifted Dash's magic for the day so they could hold and touch him.

It was a perfect day!  We hope you all had an amazing holiday as well.