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July 2, 2010 Day +2648 Day +2346 off therapy

Well, look what I did. I got caught up, somewhat anyway.

July has already started out fast paced. July 2nd I took Taylor back to the Dr. He had a 103 temp and a headache. They did a chest xray and saw nothing. A CBC showed bacterial cells, but all other counts looked good. Strep test was negative, but will keep growing since the last one as so long in showing. Dr. Petelos is treating it like a sinus infection. He put him on antibiotics. Taylor missed a fishing trip with Pippy, Pop and gary due to being sick, but Logan went. Taylor perked up and we went to SAG to eat and then Taylor went to watch the shirt and cap play ball.

July 3, 2010 Day +2649 Day +2347 off therapy

Today Taylor led the 9th annual 4th of July parade. This is put on every year in Greenwood by Sylvia Balckerby. She invited Taylor to be the flag bearer this year. He loved it as many of his friends were there on 4wheelers and go carts. He can’t wait to go back next year.

After the parade we went home and hung out. Taylor seemed to feel better, but not great.

July 4, 2010 Day +2650Day +2348 off therapy

We went to swim and Gam maw and Paw Paw’s. Taylor did not feel well at all. He asked to go home. I took him home where he had fever and napped today. At about 4, we went to get Logan and Jim and we went to Mary’s to grill. Taylor perked up and ended up spending the night with Guh. They shot fireworks at Mary;s after we left. We went to the Leake’s to shoot the many fireworks that they had. We had a so much fun except when Logan ran into a pole he didn’t see and got a strawberry on his belly. He had fun with all the kids and we did too!

July 6, 2010 Day +2652 Day +2350 off therapy

The boys went to the movies today. They had a good time. I had a meeting to go to tonight, so the boys and Jim had a boys night at Chic fill a and pitching in the yard. Yes, even though ball is over Logan still wants to pitch and catch pop flies.

July 7, 2010 Day +2653 Day +2351 off therapy

Today started out fun. We went swimming with some friends after school. Taylor wanted to show off and slipped on the slide and hit his head. He was dizzy for a bit and that scared me to death. He seems okay no. I am still not convinced he feels great after being sick last week, so it just adds to my worry. I always seem to find a reason to worry in the summer and i don’t want to. We are going to Disney in a few weeks and for his sake and my sanity I hope he is 100%.

July 10, 2010 Day +2656 Day +2354 off therapy

Today was good. Guh brought Taylor home. Lolo was supposed to spend the night with her and when I got him there he decided not to, so Taylor did. Once he got home we met up with the rest of the crew for lunch and shopping and then we met back up at Paw paw’s house for the all-star team party. It rained right at 5:00, party time, but it didn’t stop us and it ended up being great. The rain stopped and it had cooled off and was nice out. The boys had a great party!

July 12, 2010 Day +2658 Day +2356 off therapy

I am finally caught up. Today is really July 12th and I am up to date. I honestly try to do better, but as you can see we are busy being normal, busy people.

The boys are outside playing in the yard. Taylor is coughing a lot, but seems to feel ok. His head is tender where he bumped it on the slide the other day. He has been fever free for a week and finished his meds this morning. They have been playing on the slip n slide and having fun. We are going to the beach this weekend and to Disney in 3 weeks. I will do my best to update more often now that we have internet back in the house. Thanks to all of you who still keep with us. I hope that these normal posts give hope to those just starting out!

Day +2586 post transplant Day 2284 off therapy-Day +2616 post transplant Day + 2314 off therapy

Look at those days climb. God is so good!

May was yet another busy month. We may be tired of being gone all the time, and burning the roads up going between activities, but we couldn’t ask for a better life. There was a time that we were not sure we old ever see Taylor be 9 years old much less playing ball and pitching and going to camp and being an honor roll student. Praise God!!!

I knew I would miss something being so far behind. In April we celebrated Taylor’s 7 year transplant anniversary. That is an awesome thing and an awesome feeling.

May brought lots of fun. We had fun day at the ball park. We had slides, and bounce houses and a dunking booth. The kids loved dunking Jim. Too funny! The best part of the day was when the coaches dressed as women and played a game. Oh boy, do we have some pretty ladies at our park!

The weekend of the 15th we were invited to camp SAM for family camp and the 10th annual Ride of Love. Jim rode again this year, so the boys and I went to camp alone on Friday. We had a great time!!! I am now in the bunk house with the moms and it was like a sleepover, we had so much fun. A few of us got a little giggly over some snoring and it was really like a sleep over then.Saturday we painted, got massages and swam while the riders rode. At about 6:00 the ROL came in to many cheers and signs just for them.Taylor was excited to see his daddy, his Clay, Courtney, Dr. Petelos and of course Stephanie. They raised over 170,000 for camp. Wow!!!

Taylor missed his last ball game to go to the Christian Athlete dinner. He met lots of coaches and players from the Auburn team. He and Jim had a great time!

Logan had fun week at school. He got to bring bubbles, water guns, chalk and other fun stuff to school to play with during the day. He loved it. He has had a great year and has learned so much . He is our little math wiz. He loves to add and can pop them off for the longest. He had the best teacher ever and is sad that school is ending and he wont see her. I think he would repeat k5 just to have her again.

Taylor also had the best teacher ever! She was fabulous to him and he had another honor roll year. He was so excited to get that medal again this year. I say, take that cancer!!! He has had honor roll every semester every year. That is impressive for a cancer survivor! Go Taylor!!!

Taylor was sick in May. He went to the Dr. with a fever and soar throat, but had no strep. The did not give him anything and sent us home. He went home with Guh, so that he could go on to the mountains with them rather than waiting with us. He was so sick and felt so bad. I called the Dr, but no one would call him any meds. in. poor guy felt awful!

The end of May brought a play off for Logan’s team, the Diamondbacks. They had lost 2 games to the Orioles. We played our last 2 games against the Orioles and beat them twice, so now we were tied with 2 loses. We had to play them again to see who would win and become the 1st place winner of the rookie league and which coach would be the all-star coach. So, on Friday, the 28th, we played in the rain and mud. We should have been on the way to Gatlinburg, but instead we were playing ball. We ended up winning and Jim will be the all star coach this year. Way to go Rookie Diamondbacks!!!

We left right after the game and drove until 4am when we arrived in Gatlinburg.

While we were in Gatlinburg, we did go carts, an old time photo, a rock wall, the Wonder works house, swimming, biking and much more. We also got to find a CVS when the 48 hour culture grew and Taylor did indeed have strep. I told them so!

Day 5556 post transplant Day +2254 off treatment -Day +5585 post transplant Day +2283 off therapy

April was another busy month full of much the same. We played baseball this entire month. Taylor had PSAT testing at school. He did not seem bothered by it even with the big deal that was made out of it at school. I do not know how he did and I would like to see how he scored on his first big standardized test.

Taylor also went to his annual check up with Dr. Berkow. He checked out fine. He had gained weight and grew a little. It is always a little scary to go to that appointment even when you know he is fine. His urine and blood all looked great. We do not go back until April 2011!!!!!

Taylor also had an appointment with Dr. Latiff, his endocrinologist. He still wants him on the growth hormone. He printed out a chart that plots his growth since he was diagnosed. Every time he was measured is listed. It was interesting to look at and it does show how slowly he has grown, but I still can’t see giving him the hormones for 3 inches and the possible side effects. We will go back to see him in 6 months. He monitors his thyroid as well, so we will continue to see him. If Taylor wants the shots when he is older we will talk about it, but for now, no.

Taylor did get upset one night about being short. It is really starting to show that he is shorter, slower, weaker than his friends. He does not like this, but when we talked about the shots and how it would work and how long it would be, he didn’t want it. He is upset about being small and he is having some anger issues. We are working with his school councilor and the child psycologist at Children’s to get him in an anger management class or something to help him work through this.

Logan was a weed in his kindergarten program. It was the same program Taylor did in k5 and it was just as cute. He is a little braver than Taylor and though he did not have a speaking part, he did dress up and wear green spiked hair. Funny boy!

Day 5525 post transplant 2222 off treatment- day 5555 post transplant 2253 off therapy

March was full of more baseball. Twice a week and every Saturday was spent at the field for games. Every other day was spent at the field for practice. Yes, we live at the field for several months out of the year.

Logan has not been sick or missed any school this year and boom, right here at spring break, he gets sick. He missed almost all week and when he did go, I checked him out. He has a very severe ear infection. He cried himself to sleep in class. Thankfully, he has a fabulous teacher how loved on him and left him sleep until I could get there.

We went to the beach for spring break. The boys checked out of school a little early and rode down with Gam maw and Paw Paw. Jim and I left after I got off the bus. It was a nice quiet ride ith the kids already there. We also got to try out my Onstar turn by turn navigation in my car. That was fun. It was around midnight when we finally got to the condo. Wow, it was so nice. The boys were still up and showed us around and then we all went to bed.

It was pretty chilly out, so Saturday morning we just hung out in the room. Logan was acting puny and I chalked it up to his ears and the meds he was on. He ended up throwing up. We got him some yogurt thinking it was just the antibiotic upsetting his tummy. Nope, turned out he had the tummy bug. He threw up all day long. He finally fell asleep for several hours. He woke up for about an hour or 2 and then went right back to bed for the night. Poor guy. He never gets sick and does’t handle it well. He asked me once while he was throwing up if he was going to die. Talk about heart break!

Sunday he work up feeling better. However, he had shared it with Jim. I ended up taking Jim to the urgent care in Destin. He had a fever, ear ache, sore throat. Sounds familiar! They gave him meds and he slept all day Monday. Tuesday we ended up back there when he still had a 101 temp. They changed the meds and hopefully that will help.

Tuesday night we went to Captain Andersons for dinner. Yum Yum! We took the boys to Alvins Island to see the alligators. Jim was feeling better, but not great.

Wednesday Jim felt better and had to go home. He didn’t get to stay the whole week. We took the boys to an arcade where they racked up with over 1000 tickets. They had a blast.

Thursday we braved it and took the boat across the river to the ocean and played. Too bad it wasn’t hot because it was an awesome spot. The hotel had a little area only for those guests and it was like an island, it had a stream where the river met the ocean and it was perfect for the kids to play in. They did even though it was cold, but they loved it.

Friday we had to pack up and go home. It wasn’t a bad drive and we were home by dinner time.

Wow, it has been about 5 months since we updated. We are fine! No news is good news! The first reason we haven’t updated in so long is we no longer have internet in the house. We can not update the blog on our phones, so that has been the main reason for no updates. Another reason is called baseball! We started in February and just finished up in July! So, obviously I can not go back and give my usual daily updates and I hate that because I like to go back and read them myself, but I don’t even know what we did for 161 days! I will fill you in on the big stuff.

In the month of february we had several Thursday nights and weekends that we spent registering the community for ball. We had a lot of kids sign up and had a great season. Too bad I can’t give you the play by play because both boys did well!

Taylor moved up this year to the minor league. Wow, I can not believe this is his 7th year to play ball and he only has 3 left at our park. He is growing up so fast! He was on our good friend Steve’s team and had many friends on his team. We had a great year. They were not the most winning team, but they learned, no drama, no fighting etc. It was a great yr! Taylor played right field and did great. He was hitting very well, but the longer bases posed a problem for those short legs! He enjoyed the stealing and the new things that came with this league. He pitched a few times and did ok, again, the mound is further away than in the lower league and he just doesn’t haven’t the speed and strength for it.

Logan was on jim’s team again and they had a great season. We only lost 2 games all season and came in 1st place in the league. Logan has really grown over the winter and is doing well. He has a heck of an arm on him and is becoming quite the player. He still has some learning to do. He still makes errors by throwing to the wrong bag and not knowing where his play is, but he is only 6, that will come.

February was a happy month for me as I got something I have wanted for a long time, a new car. The fact that we have not had a payment in about 5 years and now we do hurt a bit, but the feeling of knowing your car was going to start and run right out ways that. I got a GMC Terrain and I love it!!!!!

As you can see we had a good February, lets see what I can remember of March.

Gosh, this year is flying by already. You better not blink or you will miss something.

February 1, 2010 Day +5497 Day +2195 off therapy

Today the boys went to school. The Dr. said it was ok since they got meds so early in the morning yesterday and did not run fever. However, it wasn’t long before the nurse called and Logan was not feeling well. We tried to make him hold off, but he called back in an hour. Jim went and checked them both out at 1:30. They didn’t seem to feel bad to me, but what do you do???

February 3, 2010 Day +5499 Day +2197 off therapy

Today I checked Taylor out and took him to the Dr. He was hurt at school by a bigger kid and it hurt the same spot on his back that he hurt when he fell down the stairs a few weeks ago. For the first time ever cancer was not in my thoughts, I was afraid he had damaged his spine of something. The Dr. did not feel that he had and he did a urine and CBC test and all that looked good. I left there a little nervous. I also left with an order for a xray at Children’s if the pain did not go away in a few days.

February 11, 2010 Day +5507 Day +2205 off therapy

I checked Taylor out today after he told his teacher his throat hurt terrible. He is known for keeping his strep through several rounds of meds, so I thought he may still have it. Went to the Dr. and he did not have strep, but has the makings of a good old fashioned cold. He has a sore throat and a very snotty nose. He has been clear since November, so we had a good run! Hopefully, this will not last long and we will get back to our clear status.

We had to work ball registration tonight at the school. We got good news for the kids while we were there. School is closed tomorrow due to snow. Wow, 2 snow days in a month in Alabama! That is real news!!! Since we had no school we went to the Whinfrey hotel with Jim. He had to stay there since the bank had to open tomorrow. The kids loved it. It was a nice little outing for the night.

February 12, 2009 Day +2010 Day +5508 Day +2206

We left the hotel at about 7:45 this morning. We wanted to get home before it got bad. It started to snow around 10:00 and by noon we were outside in about 2 inches of snow. The boys had fun, but Logan doesn’t like to be cold, so he didn’t want to stay long. We came back in and got warm and they went back out later when Jim got home. Sam loved it too!!!

February 14, 2010 Day +5510 Day +2208 off therapy

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

We spent the day at the skating rink with the Miller’s and Shirley’s. They had a great time and all did very well to be the first time on the skates they got for Christmas. Logan was so funny. He was barely going and he looked crazy, but he didn’t fall. Taylor had the hang of it, but the faster he tried to go the more he fell and he got aggravated and mad.

It was a good way to spend the day with family and friends. We grilled later on with the Miller’s and had a great time watching the Olympics.

I am finally caught up on the hightlights of the last few months. I will try not to wait to so long next time.

Can you even believe it is 2010. Wow! I remember how scared and crazy we all were when it was 2000 and here we are 10 years later. It has been a little over 7 years since Taylor was diagnosed. I can still remember some of it like it was yesterday and then other parts are slipping away. I can honestly say that cancer does not consume our everyday lives. Of course, I still get way out of control when he is sick, but I guess that will always be the case. I praise God for allowing me to be here and writing this update.

Wow, I am so behind that I have a whole month to update! Gosh, it is great to be so normal that there is nothing to tell you.

Let’s just see what we can come up with……

January 5, 2009 Day +5470 Day +2168 off therapy

Today we went back to school. It was not only the start of a new year it was the start of a new routine. I have been subbing on the bus for a while now, but I am now a permanent bus aide. Jim will take the boys to school and they will ride home on the bus with me. Guh will pick them up on Wednesdays so that they get a break from the 2 hour bus ride each day.

It was hard getting back into the routine, but we all made it and had a great day. The boys were a little shy on the bus today, but did well and both took a nap. I may pay for that at bed time if they get a 2 hour nap every afternoon.

January 7, 2010 Day +5472 Day +2170 off therapy

Since there is nothing happening, I will only update the days that are noteworthy. Today would have been our 3rd day back in school, but instead we were out for a snow day. Too bad it didn’t snow! Well, it snowed, but it didn’t stick, so we kind of waisted a day off and will have to make it up. Oh well, that is life.

Tomorrow was supposed to be the boys combined birthday party, but we had to reschedule it due to the fact that it is going to be 7 degrees tomorrow night and there is no heat where we are going. So, we will have to wait 2 more weeks.

January 11, 2010 Day +5476 Day +2174 off therapy

Well this Monday started off with a bang. Taylor fell down our hard wood stairs, about 8 of them. It hit his head and dented the wall and hurt his back. I got that text on the bus. This will be the hard part for me of not being with them in the mornings. I was on pins and needles until 9:00 when I got back to the school and called him to the office and checked him out. I was worried about him because he is complaining of back pain, but he seems ok.

January 18, 2010 Day +5483 Day +2181 off therapy

Happy MLK day. The boys spent the day at the University of Alabama at a day baseball camp. As hard as it was not to go to UA, they loved it. It was a very small group of only about 30 kids, so they got a lot of one on one and had a blast. I spent the day driving home from the beach with Guh. We had a very COLD and WET weekend, but it was quiet. We went to the movies, ate out, played scrabbles, watched tv, read and slept late. Perfect!

January 19, 2019 Day +5484 Day +2182 off therapy

Happy Birthday Taylor!!!!!!

I can not even believe that my baby is 9 years old. He informed us that he is almost double digits and in 7 years he can drive. Holy Cow!!!

Taylor got a cookie cake this morning just like Logan did on his bday. He wanted to save it for SAG tonight. He chose just to wear the hat and have them sing and not eat fried ice cream. I don’t know why, but it was his day, so whatever. He had a blast with his buds and getting presents and eating cookie cake. Too bad he still had to go home and do homework.

January 22, 2010 Day +5487 Day +2185 off therapy

Today is finally the day. We had the boys birthday at Total Baseball. It was so cold in there, but they had a blast. There was a batting cage, a pitching mound, a hit away, a field to play on. It was a little boys heaven. They had 2 hours of no coach baseball playtime with all their baseball buddies. They had a glove shaped cake and a baseball player cake decorated to match their allstar uniforms. Too cute! Thank you to everyone who came out in the cold and helped us celebrate! Happy Birthday to Taylor and Logan!!!

January 25, 2010 Day +5490 Day +2188

Today Taylor had an eye Dr. appointment. It went very well. His vision has not changed from last year. He is a little near sighted, but she feels like he will grow out of it, so we will wait and see. He did not like the dilating drops, but loved the glasses! Goofball! He spent the day with Jim doing make up work for school and homework so that we didn’t have to do it tonight.

January 27, 2010 Day +5492 Day +2190 off therapy

This morning at 7:45 I got a call that Logan had thrown up at school. Jim checked him out and kept him until I could get there and I kept him until he could get back home for me to get back on the bus. This will be another challenge in my new job, but one we will work out.

I was a little aggravated that he was sent home not sick as he must have had a juicy burp, he was not sick. Oh well, it was just his perfect attendance and an unpaid day of work for me. Ho hum! at least he wasn’t sick, right.

January 30, 2010 Day +5495 Day +2193 off therapy

Today is Saturday and the first paycheck from my new job. Woo hoo, we went to Sam’s and the grocery store and bought real groceries! Logan had complained of headache and tummy ache all morning. When we were in Sam’s he decided to get sick. Now, I am not sure if we are good at this due to chemo practice or if all moms can do this, but we were very discrete with it. I found a box in the frozen foods, he puked in it, we stuffed it in the trash can and moved on and no one was wise to it. We got what we had to have paid and left.

We had plans to go to the Miller’s for dinner and I thought we were going to have to cancel, but we didn’t. He seemed to feel ok after he did that, so we went on with our plans. The boys ate good and played fine, so we thought it was a fluke. Before we left Taylor came in and wanted to go home because his throat hurt. I took a look and I knew it was strep and I assumed Logan had it too. UURGH!

January 31, 2010 Day +5496 Day +2194 off therapy

We went to the Dr. this morning. Sure enough it is strep in both of them. They did not even run a test, they knew. So, we got some antibiotics and Popsicles and headed home to rest. They got in their pj’s and sleeping bags in the living room and we had a Back to the Future marathon, they love that movie. Other than them feeling bad, it was actually a fun day.

Today we slept until 9:30. We were all so tired. We still didn’t get moving very fast. I was supposed to go shopping with Amy, but she was done by the time I got up. oops!

We did finally get up and out. We got a few Christmas decorations on sale and the boys spent their money on legos and Bakugans. They were in hog heaven in the lego store. Taylor was so funny. He had a lego catalog in his pocket, found an employee and asked for the one he wanted and bought it all on his own. Bog boy! Logan chose 3 smaller ones.

We had a few more stops with 2 ornary boys who just wanted to play legos. Jim and I found clearance PS3 games for our suprise. So, finally, we went home and we played Singstar while they built legos. Good times!

December 27, 2009 Day +2461 Day +2159 off therapy

We slept right on through church this morning. I hate that, but I think everone was pooped. We met Guh for lunch at the Chinese place and then she took the boys home to play with their new stuff and we went to Target.

We spent the afternoon and evening taking down the tree and stuff. It took some effort and I looked like I had been in a fight with a mountain lion, but that big ole tree is in the little bag and in the attic.

December 28, 2009 Day +2462 Day +2160 off therapy

Today was clean Taylor’s room day. We took 4 garbage bags of trash, broken toys, junk etc out. It looks so much better. I had done Logan’s yesterday. I got 2 bags out of his room. He has more drawers and a toy box to hide his in where Taylor just had his stashed here and there. It took just about all day long, but we did it.

Tonight we just hung out and watched tv and video games. Not too much to report on as far as what we have been up to. Just being lazy during our time out of school.

December 29, 2009 Day +2463 Day +2161 off therapy

Today was clean Kim’s room. I went through drawers, closets, under the bed, etc. We cleaned house today. I am so tired! The kids were good. They have cabin fever being in the house all the time. it is just so cold. They went out for the 20 minutes that their battery lasted and that was it.

To entertain themselves Logan wrapped up like a mummy in a blanket. Taylor was pushing and pulling on him and he finally knocked him over and he had no way to catch himself, so hit hit face first on the hard wood floor. Ouch! Blood went everywhere. It looked like a CSI crime scene with splatter all over the place. It was just a busted nose, but it bled forever. He wont stop blowing it, so it just keeps starting back up. He has a fat lip too and is talking funny.

Another night of sitting. We cuddled up to watch Fried Green Tomoatoes. We have a small heater in the living room and it is on the same breaker as the microwave, so when Jim went to pop the popcorn it tripped the breaker. Oops!

December 30, 2009 Day +2464 Day +2162 off therapy

Can we say whoa, she is WAY behind in updating! I know I am. We really do not have anything new and exciting to tell which is a good thing. It is my own OCD tenancies that feed the need to have something for everyday. So, bare with me and lets see what the Watts clan has been up to the last few months!

Today we went shopping. We didn’t find too many sales, but the boys spent their Christmas money and traded in a few things that they got dupilcates of. We slept very late and after a little bit of shopping, we were back home and lounging around again.

December 27, 2009 Day +2461 Day +2159 off therapy

I couldn’t even begin to tell you what I did today. I think we took down Christmas decorations and got toys put away. I am sure there was a lot more lounging seeing as it was Jim’s last day off work after a week off.

December 28, 2009 Day +5462 Day +2160 off therapy

Today was clean Logan’s room day. Wow, we got 3 garbage bags of trash and junk out of his room. We threw away stuff, we hannah homed stuff. He has a great looking room! We shall see how long that will last. It took several hours to clean his room, so we will tackle Taylor’s tomorrow. It will take way longer to get his done, it is awful!

December 29, 2009 Day +5463 Day +2161

It did not take as long as I thought, but it was still an couple of hours. We got about 5 bags of trash, broken toys, lost toys, too little clothes etc. out of Taylor’s room. We left briefly and went to Target to get some Rubbermaid boxes to put under his bed with stuff in it. By afternoon, he had a perfectly clean room. Again, we shall see how long this lasts. They did not enjoy the process, so maybe they will keep it clean.

December 30, 2009 Day +5464 Day +2162 off therapy

Another sit at home day. We just lounged around and did nothing. The boys went outside for a while and roller bladed and rode bikes.

December 31, 2009 Day +5465 Day +2163 off therapy

Wow, where has this year gone. This has been a good and bad year. We have had great health and great school years, but struggled financially as has most of the world. However, we are so blessed to both have a job and 2 healthy kids that we deal with it with a smile on our face. What else can we do? 

We spent earlier part of the day at home doing nothing. When Jim got home we went to Walmart and got new yrs snacks for our Rock Band/American Idol party tonight. We met the Miller’s at SAG for dinner and then bought fireworks. We went back to our house and played rock band and American Idol. We shot the fireworks. The kids loved that. I am not so sure the neighbors did, but it was fun. We missed the ball drop, but that was okay. We all barely made it to midnight! The kids were so tired. So by 12:30 we had cleaned up and were in the bed. Is that a sign that we are getting old?

Well, I hope that you all had a great year and a great New Yrs. I Pray that we all have a wonderful 2010 with great health.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Wow, how blessed we are. In 2002 Christmas was such a bittersweet time. We were so blessed by so many people, friends, family, strangers, who gave gifts, money, time, food etc, to us. However, it was scary. Our 23 month old son had cancer. He had 2 rounds of chemo under his belt, he was bald, he was pale, he didn’t eat. Would he live? Would be turn 2, 3, 7???? Would he have another Christmas??? All of these things were floating around our minds.

Well, Praise Be to God. He did live, he did turn 2, 3 and even 8. He has had many more Christmases. Am I still scared? Yes, at times. However, I see a miracle everyday. He beat the odds, he, according to stats, should not be here. God has a purpose for his life and I am so thankful for it. I thank God for Taylor’s health and for all He has done for us and I pray that He continues to hold Taylor (an all of us) in His healing hands and that we celebrate MANY more birthdays and Christmases.

Logan woke up first, as usual and we went to get Taylor. They got a few big ticket items rather than a bunch of little stuff. Logan’s first words were, “we didn’t get much”. Taylor was thrilled with his ipod touch and Logan was all about his remote control car. They dressed and went outside to drive their rc cars. It is going to be a lot of “fun” waiting on those batteries. It takes 6 hours to charge the battery that lasts 20 minutes. Fun, huh! The also got guitars. Anyone want to give them some free lessons? Jim and I don’t play either, so it is interesting to hear what we all come up with.

Soon it was time to go to Pop’s house. The boys got DS games and Pippy and Gam maw and Paw Paw went in and are sending them to a baseball camp at UA in January. They got battleship which Jim and I enjoyed! We ate lunch there and they took their cars outside for a little bit and then we headed back home. We put away their toys and got the living room put back together.

At 5:00 we had Jim’s family over. We ate, again! We then let the boys open their gifts and then we went to play Rock Band until Nicole got there and we did Dirty Santa. I got $$$$, who could ask for more? After everyone left we just kind of crashed. It was a busy, but wonderful day.

I pray you all had a wonderful day too. Please remember those who spent this day in the hospital or sicj from treatment or missing a loved one.

Christmas Eve, it is finally here. I am not sure who is more excited the kids or us! Today we didn’t do a whole lot until about noon when we headed over to Guh’s house. She had a scavenger hunt for the boys. They had to follow clues to find all of our gifts. They had a blast and it stretched it out a bit. Then we ate some finger food type lunch and the boys played with their new stuff. About the time we started to pack up we heard the firetruck coming, so we went out to wait on Santa to come by on the Pelham fire truck. We waited quite a while, but he finally came and gave them a big Ho Ho Ho and a Merry Christmas.

It was now time to go to Mary’s house. We ate dinner and then we let the kids open their gifts. Once they opened they went to the other room to build with all the new legos. We played dirty santa. This year no one had money, so we brought things from home that we did not want anymore. It was so much fun b/c what one of us thought was junk someone else was all over it. We laughed so hard!

The kids were having a blast and the big boys were playing Madden football on the xbox and us girls were making fun of ourselves on my phone. I got the new dragon dictation app that allows you to speak into the phone and it will type out your text for you. Well, it will if you are not a southerner! We had the best time talking into that thing to see what it would think we were saying. It doesn’t take much!!!

The weather was getting bad and it was getting late, so we headed on home. We had to set out cookies and milk for Santa and get some last minutes pics by the tree and then wait for sleep to come to the boys.

I was so sleepy, I went to bed. Jim woke me up at midnight and we got things put together and then headed back to bed.

Merry Christmas to you all!!!