A Journey of a Thousand Miles...

We are ecstatic to announce that Rhys has taken two (that's right, TWO!) consecutive, unassisted steps today!

Good-bye Grandma J

So this week Grandma J, Keri's mom, headed back home to CA. We appreciated her help while Keri healed from her gall bladder surgery and look forward to her return visit in early October.

Sophie is doing pretty well with her behavior program and earned the opportunity to make and eat Popsicles (made with Crystal Light).Keri tried her hand at braiding this week.Sophie is excited to start the co-op preschool this year. There will be 6 kids total, 4 boys, 2 girls. Keri is very grateful to the other moms for accepting Sophie's attendance while Keri will be allowed to finish up chemo before starting into the teaching rotation. Preschool begins at the end of the month. She already has her backpack, crayons, scissors, and glue sticks!

Rhys is signing more. He has hi/bye, all done, eat, and is learning more and milk. Still not walking, but he can crawl faster than a cockroach can scurry when you flip on the lights (isn't that a lovely visual).

Neal and Keri attended a Rifftrax phantom event at the theater. We laughed for nearly 2 hours. Always a good time. Hopefully we can make the Rifftrax Halloween movie in late October.

Our Offspring

So this afternoon, Sophie calls me into the hall. This is what I find. I don't know what inspired her to do this but there she was all pleased with herself and so how could I not share in her joy. I love my goofy kid!

Here is Rhys and Sophie having fun together:

Cancer Update

It was nice to have a break but Keri is starting back on chemo tonight. We had just switched to a lower dose when Keri's gall bladder became evil, so she didn't really get a feel for how the lower dose affected her. Now that she's healed from her gall bladder surgery, we have the green light to continue chemo. She will be taking this chemo 3 nights a week by injection until late November.

Growing Pains Can Feel Good

Our 3-year-old, Sophie, has a personality like Keri in many ways. This only becomes a difficulty when they butt heads. So to make life easier and more fun for all, we have moved into a positive reinforcement behavior program.

Sophie has daily chores which currently include her morning routine, making her bed (pulling sheets up), feeding the cat, tidying up the playroom, and her bedtime routine. She checks them off as she accomplishes these tasks. When it's checked off, she gets to put a pom pom in her jar. She can get pom poms as we "catch her being good." I always keep a few pom poms in my pocket to help remind her even when we are out on the town. When the jar is full, we have a super-fun activity with mom and dad such as playing with silly string, making a blanket fort, swinging her in a blanket, baking something together, freeze dancing, etc.

These are her "Good Morning" and "Good Night" sticks. It helps her move through her routine with a bit more focus, thus quicker. It also helps us as parents to do certain tasks. When she finishes a task, she flips it over for the happy face. If she has all 4 sticks flipped, she can go mark it off on her chore chart. Morning tasks: personal morning prayer, brush teeth, get dressed, and fix hair. Bedtime tasks: put on pajamas, brush teeth, read scriptures, and personal evening prayer. Today, Sophie reaped the benefits of good behavior. She chose to earn pom poms so she could make a volcano with mom and dad.

Yes, we still provide natural consequences for poor behavior but this program has helped us as parents to be more patient and just have more fun helping our little girl.

Our mild mannered Rhys apparently fooled us. We fear his sweet disposition was just the calm before the storm. He still isn't walking unassisted but he is climbing--on toys, on furniture. He also gets into cupboards. We never even had to put on child safety locks with Sophie. I think we will now. He is also becoming quite adept in tantrum throwing. Luckily most of those are short-lived. And he is down to one nap a day.

Make You Breakfast, I Will, Hmmm...

For his birthday, Keri got Neal these cool pancake molds to bring out his "inner geek." This morning we enjoyed the pancakes and "light saber" sausage links.

Reunion

After 8 years, Neal was able to reconnect with, Paul, a then missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Paul was instrumental in teaching Neal the gospel of Jesus Christ and Neal's life truly "changed for the better" because of it. Paul assisted in Neal's baptism and was present when Neal attended the temple for the first time, and also our sealing as husband and wife.

Tonight we had Paul, his wife, Jessica, and their two little girls over for dinner. They were only in the area for a few more days so we felt lucky to have caught them! It was great to catch up and get to know his wife and kids. They're a great family with many shared interests. We hope to visit with them again, long before another 8-year mark.

Crazy Summer

So after 2 1/2 weeks of waves of stomach flu symptoms and an aching side, we finally figured Keri wasn't experiencing side effects of chemo, flu, or food poisoning but that her gall bladder had become VERY angry. We ended up in the ER and they escorted the gall bladder out of her body the next morning.

The surgeon knows Keri's cancer history and has operated on her before. When he went in for the gall bladder, he noticed a nasty little spot on her liver as well and biopsied that too. All pathology reports came back negative for malignancy. Yippee!

Judy, Keri's mom, flew in immediately to help our family out. Keri is doing well now and will likely start back on chemo soon, as she is healing well from the unexpected surgery. We love having Grandma J here. Here are some pictures of what has been happening this summer despite the craziness.

Finally got Rhys' signature face on camera! His puckered lips get litterally sucked up to his nostrils. What a talent!Anytime the meal involves a red sauce, it's a no clothes event at the dinner table for the kids. Neal and Keri remained dressed. After dinner, it's straight to the bathtub.This was about 1-2 weeks ago. That's Grandma J and Sophie going for a walk in the pouring rain. Fun! Wish we had this weather now. This week we've enjoyed Texas summer heat--highs of 104 or so.
The young men of our church knew our life had gotten pretty crazy so, without being asked, they came over and mowed, edged, and weed-wacked the front, side, and back yards! That would have taken my husband at least 4 hours! The whole family but especially Neal, were very grateful for the act of kindness.Finally got the pool inflated. Five inches of water and a load of fun!

Previous Quote of the Blog

The key to happiness is not to have what you want, but to want what you have. --Unknown