Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did. The girls just had a blast. I didn't get too many pictures because I took almost 2 hours of video! Christmas morning was so fun. Kelby enjoyed opening everything and we had a mountain of paper and boxes afterwards! The ultimate present was Woody (from Toy Story) from Gramma and Grampa Morrow. We got Kelby a stroller, so she pushes him around in it all the time. When she gets up from her nap, the first thing she says is, "Wanna take Woody for a ride in the stroller?" It is just so cute. After all the presents here, we went to Gramma and Grampa Wright's for breakfast and more present opening. We had to take Woody and stroller over there too of course. So, we ate and ate, and ate, and ate and played some games while Emma and Kelby played and played. Tegan was a lot of fun too. She enjoyed playing with the presents she got. She is basically sitting up now...if we put her that way she'll stay for a long time. She is almost crawling too. I think that the Christmas tree has been her motivation for that. It looks like she is trying to swim on the carpet more than crawling, but she is really getting around. The last two days the girls and I have been playing with our toys. Santa brought me a cool organizational toy!!! It is a little thingy for my purse that links up with my organizer on the computer. I am in heaven!! You know me and my To Do lists! Kelby likes the piano that Santa brought her...it has a microphone on it. She sings..."Jesus loves me..I know." It is so cute. She also got a Playdoh kit that she likes to play with...it has all kinds of cookie cutters and gadgets for playing with Playdoh. Santa brought the girls a little table and chairs that are neat. I put the table in the kitchen and let her play with the Playdoh in there. They love everything and play with everything! GiGi and PaPa got the girls some adorable blanket teddy bears with the girls' names on them...one for each of them. They both love them. It is so special to have personalized things! Thank you GiGi and PaPa! Kelby already likes to sleep with hers. Mike is having some guys over to play games tonight. We are really the party central around here! This time will only be 8 guys and their computers instead of the 14 guys that set the record. I like to have people over to help us eat all the Christmas goodies that are left over before I eat them all. That's okay...I have four more days to eat it all...then its diet time! Anyways, we are all doing great. We had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas with so much to be thankful for. Kelby was a blast this year. We wish all of you a Happy New Year! God bless. We love you all.

Merry Christmas Eve!! Wow, we have been so busy lately. I can't believe that it has only been a week since I wrote last. I've been cooking and wrapping presents...and don't forget shopping. Kelby has really been having fun shopping. She is really excited about the presents. She always wants to see the toys at the store.

We had friends over for dinner on Thursday night. Then on Friday night we went to the "Festival of Lights" in Warm Beach. It was so much fun. Kelby loved it. It is an outdoor church camp that decorates the whole place with lights. There is a petting zoo, a Santa Claus, a ton of food, carolers, shops, etc. We got there at 6:00 pm, and both girls stayed awake and happy the whole time until we left at 9:15! They just loved it. We carried Tegan around in the backpack. Kelby was dressed in a beautiful little "Miss Santa" jacket and hat. Everyone that saw her walking around commented on how cute she was...I'll include a couple pictures. That jacket and hat have been the most fun for the last week. She has been wearing it everywhere! I think she likes the attention. She didn't want to have anything to do with Santa though. We kinda got a picture, but only with me holding her next to him. Anytime we bring him up now she says..."I don't want to sit on his lap."

On Saturday, we had a pre-Christmas with Mike's family because Zach and Melissa and Riley are in Oregon for Christmas...so we wanted to get together and exchange presents. It was fun to open a present early. Kelby got a cool drawing desk...and then she said..."I want more!" I actually got that statement on video! I am a little worried about that Christmas greed already. She wants to open presents like crazy. She wouldn't eat any turkey until we gave her the entire drumstick! Man, she loved that drumstick though...I'll include some pictures.

Mike and I got to see a movie on Sunday. We went to Lord of the Rings! It was a great movie. It is an experience. You just have to see it on the big screen!

Today is Christmas Eve. I made a wonderful dinner for tonight...with a lot of helpful advice from Gramma and Great Gramma Morrow. Mike had to work half the day, then came home and took Kelby out shopping. I made Prime Rib, twice-baked pototoes, stuffed mushrooms, artichokes, and a salad. We had a candlelight dinner and it was so much fun. I was very proud of myself when I was all done! It turned out good. Then, Michael and I got to go to the candlelight service at church. Now, we are just hanging around waiting for Santa Claus to visit and fill the girls' stockings. We left cheese and sausage for him. I'll try my best to at least get some pictures up tomorrow. Good night to all!

Hello there everyone! We are all doing great right now! Tegan got her first tooth this Saturday...it finally poked through...she has been working on it for the longest time.

I had an easy going week last week. I baked and made all kinds of goodies for our party on Saturday night. We had a blast. There were 20 people in my house. It was just packed. Everyone liked each though, so it worked out just fine. We ate food and played games. Kelby and Tegan stayed here and were really good kids and went to bed at 8:00 just fine. I am glad that I have such good kids. On Sunday we made it to church and then stayed pretty lazy the rest of the day. Kelby seems to be in a much better mood today. She has been pretty needy and moody lately...I think it might be an effect of that Accutane that she is on. She's off of it now until after Christmas.

This week is just an easy week for me. I am loving it. I am all finished with Christmas shopping. All that hard work before was really worth it! Kelby is into the Christmas season I think. She is really excited about the presents under the tree anyways. I want to teach her about giving too...so we have bought a few things for other kids too, and that has been a fun part of this Christmas. I am not sure if she understands or not. Here are a few good pictures. Love to you all.

Hello everyone! I am just sitting here relaxing. Both my girls are sleeping at the same time! I won't write too much because I need to sit back and enjoy some real quiet time. We are all doing much better this week. Everyone is pretty much over their colds. Mike never got one. Kelby is feeling much better. She didn't really have an infection I guess because her blood cultures came back negative. We'll never know what gave her that high fever I guess. She is doing well now. Tegan is not crawling yet, but she is getting around by rolling all over the place. She is very attracted to the Christmas tree. I had MOPS this morning, but now I don't have any MOPS to think about for a whole month because our next meeting is supposed to be on Christmas Day, so we are skipping that one. It will be nice to have the break. Now, I need to get ready for our Christmas party, but that will be easy. It is nice to feel like I can relax today. I am basically done with Christmas shopping. I'll get some pictures up later. I need to get some shots in front of the Christmas tree. I love you all a ton!

Well, it has been a busy week for us! We had a pretty good week up until Friday night. I was flushing Kelby's line when the line burst. It was a pretty big hole. The doctor said we needed to get it out, so we had to go down to Seattle on Saturday. I clamped her line shut and put gauze and tape around the hole until we could have them pull it out. They were going to have the line pulled sometime later this month anyways, so at least they didn't have to replace the line. The doc went to pull it out...they just pull...no pain medicine or anything...but it broke inside of her instead of coming out. So, they had to surgically removed the rest of it. She had to be put under anestesia. She did really well though. We lost our Saturday, but at least she got those tubes out! She was a really strong girl.

She was ready to go the next day...Sunday...we went up to find our Christmas tree. We cut down a tree from up on the mountains. It wasn't too hard to find a good one. Kelby rode in the backpack on Mike's back and I had Tegan in the frontpack. We got our tree and headed home to decorate the house. Kelby had a great time!

On Sunday night Kelby started to feel pretty hot. We gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed. She woke up during the night still hot. We gave her Tylenol so her fever never got past 103 during the day. I called the Seattle doctors and they had us take her in to her doctor up here. He sent us over to get her blood drawn to see how her counts were. They had to prick her finger to get the blood since she doesn't have her line anymore. The counts were pretty good, but since she just had all that monkeying around with her line, they were afraid she might have an infection. Her temperature got up to 104.5 under her arm without the Tylenol. They made us take her to the ER to get blood cultures done and to get her a dose of antibiotics. Her rectal temperature there was 105.1. She had to get blood drawn from each arm, a catheter put in for a urine sample, and a shot of antibiotics in each leg that night. She did so well through it. She is a strong, strong girl. Her fever broke later that night. So far her blood cultures haven't shown an infection, but it could take up to 72 hours. She is feeling much better now that she doesn't have a fever. She had to go back to the doctor on Tuesday and get 2 more shots of antibiotics. They had to put so much medicine in that her legs really hurt and she could barely walk.

At any rate, she is doing much better today. She needs a little extra sleep, but besides that is pretty normal. If she does get another fever in the next few days, I'll have to take her right back in to see the doctor...just to be safe. At least we were able to do all this without going down to Seattle!
Tegan has a cold right now too. Man, this has been a tough week. Now I think I am catching her cold. Other than the cold though, Tegan is doing good. She LOVES "real" food...like rice cereal and mashed up peaches. She is belly crawling now. She's not quite up on her knees, but she is trying to get around. She sure has a temper too. When she doesn't get what she wants, she lets you know it!

Today was a pretty normal day. I got a few things done around the house which always makes me feel better. We are planning to have a bunch of friends over for a party on December 15th. I am excited about that. I hope they will all fit in our house. We'll play games and eat food...don't need too much room for that. I hope that everyone out there is doing really good and enjoying this holiday season.

Hello everyone! I know it has been a long time since I last wrote, but so much has been going on! We had a wonderful trip to Billings for Thanksgiving. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. There sure is a lot to give thanks for in our case. I am so thankful that Kelby is doing so well. I am thankful that she is a strong, happy, sweet, and healthy girl. I am thankful for my blessing baby in Tegan. She has been such a wonderful joy through this past year. Today is an earmark day for me. It was one year ago, the first Monday after Thanksgiving that we took Kelby down to the Children's Hospital in Seattle not knowing what was wrong with her. It was throughout the next week that we discovered the horrible news. Can you believe that a whole year has gone by? We have so much to be thankful for in the friends and family that were there to love, support and pray for us. So, we are thankful for everyone out there too! We love you all.

So, what has gone in the last week or so? Tegan has started eating baby foods now.She has really figured it out now. She is in good health too...she had a check-up last week and got some shots. We borrowed a walker from her cousin Riley and she seems to like hanging out in that. She can push herself backwards around the house...until she hits a wall. So, after getting all those Christmas presents ready and packing for our trip...I was ready for the relaxing trip to Billings. We left Tuesday night after work, and drove through the night. The roads were wet, but not snowy. The girls did so good in the car! They slept, but would wake up each time we stopped. Kelby would say, "We're goin' to Grampa Morrow's house." Then she'd fall back asleep when we got back on the road. We made it there by about 9:00 am. We were pretty tired. I, at least, can sleep while Mike is driving. We switch off driving every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. We had fun with Gramma and Grampa...and I got to see Andrea for the first time in a year and a half! It was a great time. Kelby liked to look at the "water" (the pool) and eventually she made it into the water. She got used to it and after a while she even started kicking in it a little. She even got to go in the hot tub and really loved that! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and we got to show the whole family my beautiful kids! It was nice to see everyone again. They were amazed at how good Kelby looks now! The day after Thanksgiving called for a little early morning shopping for just me and my Dad. That was a good time. Later that night we made Mom and Dad put up their Christmas tree so Kelby could have some fun decorating with them. Yesterday, we were watching a Christmas movie where Kelby saw a Christmas tree and she said out of the blue, "Grampa make a Christmas tree." She had watched Grampa put together their fake tree and remembered to tell about it! It is amazing what she remember's now. I have lot's of pictures to put up, but currently my batteries are charging. I need to get an AC adapter or some extra batteries for this new camera I guess. I'll get those pics up soon.

Anyways, we made it home safe. It was a great trip. The girls did pretty good in the car on the way home too. We appreciated having our van! Too bad we can't seem to sell our old Pontiac though. We are all doing great. I hope that everyone is doing as well! Love to you all.

Tegan's first Thanksgiving feast - Sweet Potatoes!

I am so sorry that it has been so long since my last update. I has been a busy week or so. Mostly I have been sick. I got a real bad bug on Wednesday that had me stopped in my tracks. My muscles ached and I was a mess. Then, I have been busy making everybody presents! My sister-in-law/friend :) had her birthday on Friday night and we all went over there. Mike and Gramma and Grampa Wright took Kelby to the zoo on Saturday, but I wasn't feeling up to it. I stayed home and got ready for my Stampin' Up! parties that I am doing this week. On Saturday night, Melissa and Julia came over for my "Stamp-Til-U-Cramp" night and we had a blast talkin until I lost my voice around 11:30 pm. I had no voice then for three days! I did a Stampin' Up! party on Monday night for Melissa...with no voice...so you can only imagine I looked ridiculous! On Tuesday morning we had another MOPS meeting which went great, but again...I had no voice...but tried to talk anyways. I had to tell the ladies how to do the craft (I think the mostly got it.) I went to the doctor thinking I have a sinus infection, but the nurse said...call us in 7-10 days if you're not better. They don't want to give out those antibiotics unless they really have to these days! I think I'll call on Friday though if I am not feeling better to get some antibiotics anyways. I still think it is a sinus infection. Today I drove Kelby and Tegan down to a check up in Redmond. It has been a long week.

Kelby's doctors still think she is doing great. She has really dried out cheeks from the Accutane, but otherwise looks and acts normal. She was finished with her 6 rounds of Accutane this month, but they are going to have us stay on it for three more months...just for good measure. I made them lower her dose though because each round made her side effects worse. Also I am nervous about long term side effects of this drug. They aren't as bad as chemotherapy...that's for sure, but they don't have any real data on it's affect on kids. I feel better with the lower dosage. This was a good compromise. Also, they will be taking her catheter out at her visit next month! I am most excited about that! So, it was a great visit today.

So, other than my sickness, we have all been doing great. Tegan has started to eat rice cereal now. At least, we try to get her to eat it. She doesn't quite get the swallowing process yet. It takes time. We are headed to Billings for Thanksgiving, so we are all excited about that. I have to have all my Christmas presents ready by then, so I have been busy working hard on that. I have another Stampin' Up! party tomorrow night. I have myself pretty booked up these days...just the way I like it! Love to you all!

 

Happy Birthday to Grampa Greg! Love you! Well, hello there everyone! I know it has been longer between updates, but it is because everything is going so well. We were very busy this Wednesday with all the Halloween festivities.

We had to take Gramma DeeDee down to the airport on Tuesday, so we were all sad to see her go. Kelby REALLY loved having her here. She took go care of me while I was getting better from my tooth extraction! I am feeling much better by the way. Then Wednesday was packed full! We got dressed up in costume in the morning. Kelby was a "Happy Face" and Tegan was an "Angel." They both looked so adorable. I had a silly happyface shirt on too...to feel like a part of the fun. We went out in the morning to visit a few places to "trick-or-treat" then went shopping for I had not bought any candy myself yet. Then we went to visit Great Gramma and Grampa Wright...to show off my cuties. We did manage to make it home after that for a good nap. We went to Gramma Wright's after that and saw cousin Riley dressed up like a clown there. We then went to pick up Daddy at his office so we could show off the girls there. Then we went to the church's harvest party. Kelby loved it at first. She got lots of neat prizes and candy there. Daddy won a cake! Then it got a little too crowded, so we had to go home. We trick or treated the houses right on our block and she enjoyed that. She wanted to go into everyone's house though. She likes the candy. We got tired of that, so we came home and Kelby helped me give out candy to the many, many kids on our neighborhood. It was so much fun. The whole day made such a fun memory for me. Tegan was a good girl the whole day too. She was and "angel"! So after the girls went to sleep, I went back to the church and volunteered for a shift of helping out at the harvest party. I was fun too. We had a busy Halloween.

It is so weird to think that it is already November. This week last year we first noticed that Kelby had a swollen jaw. I am so Thankful that she is doing great right now! We have made it a whole year! The weather is very "Novembery" here. I like it though. I hope that you are all doing great. We love you all.

Hello out there! How is everyone doing? I see that the Diamondbacks are doing great in the world series...go Arizona! Sorry that the Mariners aren't playing against them. Gramma Dee Dee is visiting, so we have been enjoying her. I was out of it for quite a while because I had my wisdom teeth out on Thurday. I can't even remember Thursday at all. I am still a little sore, but I have medicine for that. I am all done nursing Tegan now. She did really well on the bottle for the days I was on the medicine, so it is time to be done with nursing. I am ready. Kelby is doing great. She is really enjoying Gramma DeeDee. Gramma DeeDee wants me to tell you all that Kelby is talking in full sentences and seems to understand everything. She is a normal little two year old...and a genius...gramma says. I'll get some pictures up sometime soon. Love you all!

I actually did try to update this a couple days ago, but have been having much computer problems lately. My laptop is out of commission for a couple more days, so I had to work on a different computer.
We are all doing pretty great. The nurse called on Friday and said that Kelby's other blood test came back with normal levels, so it doesn't look like there is any active cancer in her still! Yeah! She is doing great and eating like crazy.

I got a myself a really neat saw to make crafty wood art. So, needless to say, I have been crafting away the last week. I would love to make stuff to sell at craft fairs, but right now I am just going to work on everyone's Christmas presents! If I come up with enough good ideas maybe I'll make enough to sell at this time of year next year. I know that I can make stuff to sell at our neighborhood's annual garage sale. It would be a perfect time of year to sell some of my creations, but I just don't think I can get enough done in time. But...everyone can expect homemade Christmas presents this year!

Mike had his game night last night. This time there were 14 guys and their computers here from 12 in the afternoon to 12 midnight last night! They just have so much fun doing that. The wives all met at a different house and we had a great time too! We had the kids, but we still managed to fit in pedicures, rubber stamping, pizza and we all dyed our hair too! It was a great day. Kelby loved playing with the other kids, but she was sure tired out. I hope that everyone likes my hair color...it is a brownish-red...I suppose I should put up a picture...but I'll wait till I do it up nice tomorrow. (PS...if you don't like it...don't worry it is a wash out color.) Here are some pictures from earlier this week.