Our Children

Our Rhys is walking quite a bit now. He is also signing the words more, eat, milk, all done, and baby. He is starting to follow along with finger plays.Sophie loves her preschool friends. She is excited about the Halloween decorations that are now up in our house. She is so cute when she holds her brother's hand.

Sophie recently commented on the sky from the backseat of the car. Referring to the clouds, she noted that "God take out the pink ones" (from a sunset earlier in the week) and "put on white ones."

Sophie also does Meals on Wheels every Monday with a family friend. This is the conversation Neal and Sophie had while he held his little girl:
Daddy: Did you do Meals on Wheels today?
Sophie: Yes.
Daddy: Did you like giving the people their food?
Sophie: Yes
Daddy: You know, Sophie, when you help people and feel good, that is the Holy Ghost telling you that you did the right thing.
Sophie: You're fuzzy Daddy! (This while rubbing his unshaven cheeks)

We'll keep trying. We know it will get through some day.

Grandma J and Getting Crafty

We were happy to have Keri's mom, Judy, visit for the third time this year. She stayed for 2 1/2 fun weeks. Judy let Keri sleep in everyday and helped with the house and kids. We also got out to do some shopping, eating out, and spending time at the local parks.

Keri's white blood cell counts have been much too low. She has been getting 1-2 shots a week to help her get her counts up. Those shots wipe Keri out so the extra help was very much appreciated.

While Judy was in town we made some dishes from her recipe box. Keri loved many of them because they were yummy tastes from her childhood. Neal, in particular, enjoyed the carrot cake.

Judy also taught Keri how to crochet. She has tried to teach Keri before but this time Keri wanted to learn and didn't get as easily frustrated. Before Judy flew back to CA, Keri had 1/4 of a baby blanket completed. Crocheting is fun and relaxing.We also dusted off the sewing machine and made fleece hats for the kids for the upcoming fall and winter weather. Keri loves the ears. Sophie has a lavender one.

Doesn't Rhys look absolutely horrid! He has been walking quite a bit lately and his face met the sidewalk yesterday. It's even worse up close. It breaks Keri's heart every time she looks at her son. He doesn't seem sore though. He's still happy (after a few initial tears) and still enjoys walking the sidewalks.Not only did we get crafty, but Judy brought her Pillow Talk DVD. Keri and Judy grin during the entire movie! Dorris Day and Rock Hudson make a great duo on film. Neal was not forced to watch it a second time.

Judy also babysat so Neal and Keri could go on a date. They went to Ruth Ellen's for dinner. It is a historic home that serves simple, delicious comfort food. They had a local choir there that night and we enjoyed their singing while we finished cleaning our plates. Following dinner we had the pleasure of seeing a presentation on the history of women in flight and space at our local public library. A reporter interviewed us briefly afterwards but we didn't say anything too profound. Maybe if he is desperate, he'll print something we said.

With Halloween upon us, Keri has added some cool pictures to the spooky decor. She found these at The Dollar Tree and thought the pictures were great but the plastic/sticker frame was so cheesy. So she cut the frames off and slipped the pictures into (cheap) wood frames. See how the picture changes depending on your angle? Sort of reminds you of the pictures in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, huh?

Sweet

The sweetest thing is seeing Rhys fold his arms when we say it's time to pray.

Keri looks up and says,"That sure is a pretty sky." Sophie follows with, "Heavenly Father did good job!"

Previous Quote of the Blog

Hope and happiness and joy are not products of circumstance but of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ --Elder Wilford W. Andersen

Yet Another Cancer Update

Keri had a oncology appointment this week and got good news. Although, she had to stop chemo treatment for a few weeks when she got her gall bladder surgery, we are still on schedule to end chemo on the 15th of November. She's due to get some body scans in the next two weeks, including a brain MRI. She told the doctor the brain imaging wasn't necessary. She said she already knows her brain is tweaked and that was prior to the cancer diagnosis.

Balloon Festival and More

Lately, Sophie has been putting on Keri's winter socks to make her own fashion statement. She tries to put them on Rhys too, but he has never fully cooperated. Sophie watching Disney's Cars (her favorite) in the cold pack styrofoam box Keri's chemo comes in. Thank you mail order pharmacy for the bonus furniture.

In her Tigger costume watching, what else? Winnie the Pooh...

Rhys loves climbing up on things and sitting on them. His toys, our dusty treadmill...

What a ham!You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Neal has recently started baking his own bread. It just keeps getting better too. Here are some hamburger buns. Yum!It's one of our family traditions to go to the Plano Balloon Festival each year. Neal got out of work a bit early and we bought Subway sandwiches and headed out. And the heavens opened and poured out upon us. We knew there was a storm going through but it looked like it was going to blow through quickly. They delayed, we ate a picnic dinner under a tree in the parking lot as it rained and thundered. Even after it let up we could see the skies were still threatening so we went home.
And arose early at 5:45 am, ON A SATURDAY MORNING! Neal is a morning person. Keri, not so much. We tossed the kids in the car, got donuts and kalachies (this is how Neal bribes Keri to get up early), and met up with Opa and Oma to take in the morning launch.

Fun with Oma

Pitter-Patter Rain Drops

Thank you Tropical Depression Hermine for bringing us much needed rain! Our kids love it! Also, I want the world to know I had Sophie fully dressed this morning. She still believes pants are optional.

Grandma Sue Visits

Neal's mother, Susan, came for her annual visit and luckily brought some cooler weather with her.

Sophie started preschool last week. It is a co-op preschool where the parents take turn teaching an agreed upon curriculum. There are 4 boys and 2 girls in the class. This is her on her first day.We enjoyed some showers while Susan was in town. She took the kids out in the rain to enjoy the puddles.

Sophie's good behavior earned her a chance to be silly with silly string.

Rhys is walking several steps when he feels like it but he doesn't feel like it often. Grandma bought the kids clothes and we finally got him in a pair of shoes that fit.

We also made our annual visit to the Barnette side of the family where Susan's Uncle Alvin celebrated his 83rd birthday! He says he has three canes but chooses not to use them because people will think he's old.

Susan returned home to CA this past Sunday. Thanks for coming out and we'll see you next year, Grandma Sue!

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.