"Ooooo the reason I hold on..."

"...cuz I need this hole gone." Casey can pick up a song pretty fast. He has been heard singing this song (Stay by Rhianna), Mumford and Son's, Maroon 5, The Lumineers, Fun. He's got pretty good taste. I need to get a video of him singing it. It makes me wonder if he'll be more musically inclined when he's older, if he'll be in choir or band or have his own garage band some day. I hope so. I know he loves music and has a knack for it. He's constantly humming, even while he eats.

Now that Bennett is in school longer we've been spending a lot more one on one time together, I love it. He is such a sweetheart, loud and sometimes moody, always head strong, but very sweet and sensitive. Sometimes I look at him and just think I could snuggle and kiss him forever. I'll leave you with a pic of my cutie doing some Mommy School stuff.

Memorial Day weekend '13

We had a wonderful weekend with a much needed visit with family. We stayed at Cinnie and Papa's and enjoyed playing outside in the sunshine and sandbox, making ginormous bubbles, exploring the pond and barn and playing a fun game of Headbands (try to guess who you are).  Cinnie and Papa watched the boys while Jeff and I had a date night with Deedles and Max. We saw Star Trek Into Darkness, awesome. Loved Benedict Cumberbatch, such a great actor. And we loved Jodie and Max's new house, just beautiful. We are so happy for them!
Then Monday was spent visiting my family. My grandma took a fall and is staying in the hospital so we made home made get well cards (with too much glitter) and visited her, thankfully she is doing great and will be home after a couple weeks in a rehabilitation center. She looked really good.  It was nice visiting with my sister as well and seeing my mom and meeting Sebastion, my mom's new puppy - a Yorkshire terrier. The boys fell in love with him, he's so cute and little!
Here are some pics from the weekend:

New Beginnings

I feel like we've had too many "new beginnings" lately. I'm done with moving. I'm done with huge life challenges. I just want our happy little family to have a quiet few years. I feel optimistic that it will be that way here. We are really enjoying our new place and town although we do miss family. Vancouver seems really big to us. We've only gotten to know the NE side of it. We love our neighborhood and the kids have made lots of friends here. It is getting pretty normal to have up to 6 kids at our house and seems like every day there is a new kid to meet. I love it. I always wanted my house to be the meeting place of my kids' friends. I'm going to have to stock up on otter pops this summer for them! 

Ben is doing great at his new school, hasn't skipped a beat. He's made friends and likes playing basketball, soccer and TMNT at recess (he's Leonardo because he's the leader). H

is class just presented the cutest music program. I'm really impressed with the schools here. They have music and PE 2x a week and although he's in school until 3:35 and I miss him like crazy I know it's good for him. My little video game prodigy doesn't play video games during the week anymore, he's too busy playing with friends or at school or chillin' with his mama that he misses during the day. And it's not like I've restricted him, he just isn't interested. 

Casey is loving the neighborhood friends here too. He has loved having a sidewalk to ride his bike down when we go for walks. Where we lived before it was kinda in the country with no side walks. I do miss the quietness of our last house and hearing the frogs at night.  Casey and I have visited the local library here a few times, (the children's section has nothing on the Albany Public Library's children section) but they do have some fun stuff for him to explore.  We've played at the park down the street a lot and Casey likes to take walks through the dog park and pet all the dogs and play on the logs there. The other day I was getting his jammies on him and looked at his legs. All cut up, scraped and bruised with picked on scabs and dirty stinky feet - the sign of a happy boy. He plays hard. He's the opposite of Benny in that he's not cautious at all and he's a little clumsy. We checked out a coop Montessori Christian Preschool, sounded so great. And it was, I totally recommend Vancouver Downtown Coop Preschool. But it was like almost 20 min away and he would only be going 2 days a week and I would be going to help teach (which would have been fun) but all that plus the cost, it just made more sense to do it at home. So I've started planning a more routine "Mommy school" that will start officially when Bennett gets out of school. 

Jeff is trudging away at his job. It's quite different from his last. He's missing his friends at his last job although he's making new ones he doesn't work in the same office as them so it's tough. Also his trainer whose been training him for the last couple months got a new job and is leaving which makes Jeff really nervous since he hasn't learned everything yet. His trainer had 2 years of training. Jeff has had 2 months.  

Well it's about time we've gotten this blog updated. Hopefully I'll keep on top of it. I'll leave you with some pics. (I've already added all our Make a Wish Trip pics to our external hard drive so I don't have them on here.)

Half Way Mark

We are half way done with for Casey! I've been slacking on the blog so I thought what better time than now to update y'all.  That and it's Children's Cancer Month.

This  morning Jeff said it's just crazy how we now have 2 cancer survivors in our little, young, family. Not only that it happened with in a couple years. I have gotten so used to cancer and chemo being apart of our life it just feels normal and then I step back and realize it is very not normal. I don't like to think about this too often because then the questions come and my brain gets over loaded with "whys" and "hows" and "what ifs". It makes me question every thing I've believed in, how the universe works and then before I know it I'm watching Nova specials about the Big Bang theory. Then I realize I'm being nutty and need to lighten up so I turn on the real Big Bang Theory. And the "Universe" shouts at me "Bazinga!" And I laugh. Because that's all you can do. That and count my blessings. 

It helps to laugh when Casel (yes we call him Casel sometimes. Now that he's bald it's Vin Casel. ) is doing so well. He does get tummy aches almost daily but he's never thrown up and the anti nausea meds the doc prescribed have been really helpful.  He's had a two week break which has really brought his energy back. We no long have to stay the night at Doernbechers since he's done with the Citoxin. (However that's spelled.)  

We have been so blessed through out our battles. Recently we received news that the Make a Wish foundation will be sending us to Disney World! We are going for Casey's birthday in April. And the Papa's Pizza fundraiser was extremely helpful and it was great to see so many friends come out and support our family. We have an amazing family that has really step up to the plate for us and I can't thank you all enough. 

Whatever the meaning of all this is I have seen what some may call miracles in the timing that we were diagnosed and our prognosis' and the care we've recieved. There is a greater power out there that is watching over this family and I am so grateful for that because I know things could have been a lot LOT worse. Every time we go to Doernbechers I'm reminded of how blessed we have been. 

Casey at this moment is dancing to Barney on PBS and eating an orange. You'd never guess this kid had so much on his plate right now. He is one resilient kiddo. 

Our family's bond has been strengthened immeasurably and I know that we will conquer any storm that may cross our paths in the future as a family. 

Again thank you, a million times to everyone who has prayed, kept good thoughts for us or supported us in other ways. We love you and pray for YOU daily.