Postponed again!

Nurse came today.  Accessed Chase again and left him that way in case we head up north, but got results around noon and looks like it is a no go.  Darn, I hate this!  This time I didn't really tell Abby much so there was no disappointment, but I really thought we would be closer this time.  His counts have to be... platelets at 75 which we are way past, and ANC needs to be 700.  Last week Chase was 400 (scary zone).  This week he is only up to 500 (still scary).  The good is that we don't have to make the drive, and Chase has another week off.  The bad is that is pushes all his treatments back making it a longer time until we are finished.  Also...yes, we get to stay home, but can not go anywhere or do anything because his counts are so low.  Kinda bitter sweet.  Wish we could take the opportunity of staying home and do something fun.  Abby dances at halftime at the high school Friday, and Chase will not be attending.  We look forward to the day that the whole fam can enjoy the sweet little things like a football game!  The other bad is that now Ashton and I have to pull the needle out of his chest.  Didn't think this would be a big deal when we had to do it last week, but it is in there good and he is not numb like he is when he is accessed so I think he can feel it cuz he told us that it hurt last time.  We went and bought new band aids.  They are scooby doo (his new fav.) so hopefully that will be an incentive to taking it out.  Probably not, but there has to be some happy to the sad parts of life!

His counts today:

Wht  - 2.4

Hct - 34.3

Platelets - 261

ANC - 500

His weight was 36 where it has been now for a few weeks.  He is still about 6 lbs heavier than before he was diagnosed.  I am okay that he is stuck at 36 because he worries me every day that he is not eating enough, but since he is not losing weight I guess that means he is getting enough!

GO TO CHILLI'S TODAY!!!

Today is the day that Chilli's is donating ALL profits to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Even if it is just for dessert with the family.  Every little bit helps.  Thanks!

You can also donate on Chilli's website or going directly to St. Jude website if you don't go to Chilli's today!

I took the kids there for lunch. (take out, like always!) The waitress was so nice to bring the food out to us...no curbside at Chilli's.  When she came out she asked if the kids would like one of the trendy new bracelets that was shaped like a chilli.  Of course my kids were all over that.  If you make an extra donation they will give you a little 5 pack of the COOL new bracelets that all the kids are wearing! (I am  not a hip mama so I have no idea what the bracelets are called.  I just know that Abby has a ton of them.)

 Did you know that with research and treatments developed by St. Jude, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia has increased from 4% to 94% since 1962?

Without the research that has been put into childhood cancer the the last few decades, Chase would have been given some meds to keep him comfortable and sent home!!!  I am so grateful that he is able to have treatment.  I owe everything to researchers and hospitals like St. Jude so Chase can live the life that he is living right now!!!

Dr. Chase

Funny story....With Chase's counts up last week he went with Ashton last friday to have his flu shot at Dr. T's.  So then when I took Mason to his two week check on Wednesday I took Abby and Chase with me.  Abby, so she could get her shot and Chase because he had a weird ring on his head that I wanted Dr. T to look at.  I told Chase the whole way there that we were not going for him, but that mom and Abby had to get a shot.  When we got to the Dr., Sam came and got us from the waiting room and the second we walked through the door Chase started telling her, "Mommy shot, Abby shot."  I think he wanted her to know that we were not there for him and not to touch him.  Well, because he knew that he wanted to do everything Mason was doing.  He had to be weighed after Mason and also wanted them to see how tall he was.  He usually cries through this whole process when he knows the apt. is for him.  He was so proud to be "in charge" this time.  So we get in the room and Sam comes in with the shots.  Chase very aggressively goes running over and grabs the shot out of Sam's hand and says he is going to do it.  "I do it! I do it!"  This is making me nervous because he is coming at me with a needle (the cap still on).  Sam grabbed it from him and nicely told him she had to do it.  He thinks he is in control when it comes to others having to take medicine because at home we let him give us many things in the syringe so he feels like he is not the only one getting medicine.  Hopefully he never catches on that ours is syrup, yogurt, or any other liquid that looks like his medicine. 

After Abby had her shot and was SCREAMING, Chase was trying to console her by telling her what color her band-aid was.  He has learned fast from his mom, dad, and doctors around him that you have to get her mind off of the pain and focus it on something like a cool band-aid!  Sad that my two year old knows more about medicine and doctors than most adults.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

I know Sept is almost over, but we have been slightly busy this month and I have not gotten around to post this until now. 

September is Childhood Cancer awareness month...

Gold is the color of Childhood Cancer. Wear it proudly.

I am still learning all I can about childhood cancer, please do the same.

We learned the hard way that this can happen to ANY child at ANY time, lets do all we can to help find the cause and cure!

Abby watched this video with me.  She is so concerned for Chase and his "sickness".  She asked me more questions about Chase than any 5 yr old big sister should have to worry about.    

• Mom, are all these kids "diagnosed?" (she has been listening to what we say because this is the first time she has ever used that word, and I am sure she doesn't even know what it means)
• Wow, there are sure a lot of kids diagnosed!
• How did they all get sick like Chase? (moms great answer...."I don't know!")
•  They all have to do that for 3 years like Chase? (after the part that says treatment is 3 yrs.  She keeps telling me that Chase will have to do this for 3 Christmas's.  She is very aware that he is going to be sick for a long time).
• Are they all getting blood like Chase?
• Are they all having blood pressure? (Chase HATES having his blood pressure taken)

You can visit these sites for info and to donate-

curechildhoodcancer.ning.com

www.curesearch.org

www.stjude.org

www.goldthenewpink.net

www.alexslemonade.org

www.cookiesforkidscancer.org

www.curechildhoodcancer.ning.com

www.stbaldricks.org

www.gladtogive.com

www.crochetforcancer.blogspot.com

*if you work for a corporation, tell them about Chase and encourage them to donate to one of these charities this year.

--I also want to mention that Chili's is supporting St. Jude all month long and on September 27th they are donating ALL profits to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. If you can do nothing more, please go eat at Chili's on September 27th.

After Chase was diagnosed with Leukemia my eyes were opened to how many sweet little kids have to go through such a terrible thing in their lives.  It breaks my heart to see how sick they are, but are still  the happiest little people.  They are so positive and have such a good outlook on life.  Maybe this is because Chase is so young he doesn't understand what is going on, but he is such a strong example to me and how I should approach life.  He gets up every day (well almost) with a smile on his face, ready to play.  Unless he is trapped in a body that doesn't feel good, he has been the happiest little boy.   Right now we just take one day at a time.  I try not to think about what we have to do tomorrow, or the next day, but just enjoy the time I have with my kids.  

To Go or Not To Go?

This is our motto for the next couple months.  Every apt. for Chase this next two months is count dependent.  So today the nurse came and accessed him and drew blood.  She left him accessed because she assumed since his counts were so high last week, and he has been acting so good, that we would be going for treatment tomorrow.  About an hour or so ago I got a call from Primary's.  We are not going.  Not only did Chase not make the needed 700 ANC but he is at 400.  We are below the 500 cut off of being in the not scary zone.  Glad we got to get out and about last week.  The nurse will come back on Tues. and we will hope for a potential trip to SLC next wed.  Just means that now Ashton will no be going.  CRAZY!!!  This life is hard for me to get used to.  I know I don't have a choice, but not being able to plan a trip that requires an overnight and finding somewhere for Abby to stay is hard.  We have so much family and friends willing to take her and make her feel overly welcome, but I feel like everyone around me also has to be on somewhat of last minute notice too.  Most of all Abby!  She was so excited to have a sleepover at Grandmas tonight that she was crushed when I told her she wasn't going anymore.  We will have to have a fun night in with our little family to make up for it.  Abby has a lot of OCD in her.  I am sure the way she has been raised has a lot to do with it.  She knows we are planners and to have plans change last minute is hard for her.  Hopefully she can adjust to all the changes made with her schedule. 

So in the mean time we get to stay home this weekend and enjoy the new addition to our family.  Regardless of Chase's counts he is acting like one happy little two year old.  So if he doesn't feel good I would never know!  His is in good spirits!  Thanks for all the love and prayers!

Our Eventful Week

So Grandma is gone. Chase was a little board this morning when it was just me and him...well, Mason was here too, but he just sleeps all day. He has been such a daddy's boy lately it has actually been kinda cute, but Ashton may say different. He played with Grandma and I, but we both new he was favoring his dad. But this morning he came up and asked me, "where's Grandma?" She has been here for a good week so she became part of the family. Chase was so concerned when she was not here this morning. We had some good play time this morning, just Chase and I, but we will miss Grandma. She was a huge help and now I have to get into a routine of some sort or I am never going to be able to get all I need to done.

Mason is growing faster than I want him too. Yes, I know it has only been a week and a half, but I know he is going to get big fast and I don't want him to. I love cuddling with him. There are so many things that you forget so fast about having a baby.
The way they smell
The noises they make. Mason is probably my noisiest (or at least I forgot that the others made these noises). He will just sit there and coo. He even does it when he is eating. It is so sweet.
They have the sweetest little cry.
How content they are to just curl up on your chest in a ball.
They way they stare off into space at nothing...at least as far as we know. I personally believe the veil to be so thin that they really are looking at something.
Just how innocent and helpless they are. Every little thing they need depends on US!
I have loved having Mason as part of our family. The kids instantly fell in love with him and have showed nothing but concern for him since. Chase comes running to me anytime Mason cries yelling, "Mom, Mason cry!!!" He wants to be sure that he is always happy and that we are taking care of him. Chase has asked to hold him numerous times. I think it is so sweet that he is very in tune to the fact that this is HIS little brother.
Abby, well she is my little helper. She caught on to the fact that every time I feed him I change his diaper. The other day she came out with a diaper in her hand while I was feeding him. She said, "mom, I thought you would need this." She did that without me even asking her. She also is very in tune to Mason and his needs. She thinks every time he cries that I need to feed him. Although this is about the only time he cries, it is cute that she always thinks we need to feed him. She also thinks it is funny when he turns his head back and forth with his mouth open looking for food. That is when she says, "I really think he is hungry mom."
I have been blessed with the sweetest little kids. I love them so much! Even with all that has been handed to us in the last couple months, I can not imagine life being much better than it is right now! Even though we are stuck in the house most of the time, I love spending time with them. We have a lot of fun!
Last week we (well, mostly Grandma and the kids) made a SPOOKY house. Chase mostly ate frosting while Abby decorated. Now every time Chase walks past the house he says, "mom, make spooky house! Ghost, spooky" There is a ghost on the front of the house that he thinks is spooky looking.


Mason had his first bath last night. He loved the idea when I put him in the water. I let him lay there for a while, but then when I started washing his hair he wasn't too happy about the idea of a bath anymore.



We were also able to get out of the house a little this weekend. Chase's blood draw went great. His numbers were excellent and we took advantage of this. Thurs. night we went to G & G Prince's to swim and have dinner.

Friday, Chase had the opportunity of going with dad to the Dr. to get his Flu Shot!!! YIPEEE! Another Dr. visit, but he did okay Ashton said. Really...what kid is excited to get a shot? Abby has cried many times just talking about going to gets hers on Wed.
Friday night we took the kids to the parade. The rodeo is in town and they have a children's parade. It isn't much to watch, but the kids were just excited to be out of the house. Chase was pumped that they were throwing him candy. We tried to go out to dinner where there weren't so many people. We thought we were doing great when we pulled up to Marv's and there were two cars. We went inside and ordered, sat down, and were getting settled when about 30 people came walking through the door at the same time. Can you say, "can we get our food to go?" We ended up eating in the car on the way home. Wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but the kids eat good in the car so it was okay!
Friday we also went to Lowe's to pick out a Halloween blow up. My dad has a thing with blowups and he gets all the grandkids one every year for Halloween and Christmas. We even have a HUGE turkey for Thanksgiving thanks to my dad. The kids LOVE it though and the holidays wouldn't be the same without the blow ups. So this year they picked out a pumpkin. Thanks DAD!
Saturday was super busy (well, for Abby mostly). We had to be in Ivins at 8am for pictures (they will be posted soon). I have seen some sneak peaks and so far they are so cute. Our good friend Tiff did an AWESOME job! After pictures Abby had primary program practice at 10:30-12, then a soccer game at 12 so we picked her up and she dressed in the car. After that she came home and got ready for a birthday party at jumpin jacks at 3 and she didn't get home from that until 6:30 or so (thanks Avalos' for the fun time....Abby had a blast). She then had been invited to go the Rodeo at 8pm but by this time she was so exhausted there was no way she would have lasted more than 30 minutes and she would have been sound asleep on her friends mom's lap. So she decided to stay home. Good thing cuz I think she was in bed by 8 and sawing some major logs. A very busy day for a 5 year old. Chase loved being able to go to Abby's soccer game. He sat right on his chair and watched her play the whole game. Another bonus to having good counts this week!
Life is good! We are looking forward to the cooler weather so we can spend a little more time outside. When you can't go many places your yard seems to become a little escape from being locked inside. We don't have much to play with out there now, so maybe now would be a good time for some expansion to give the kids somewhere to go play instead of being in the house all day.
This week Chase's visit up north depends on his counts. Because they were so high last week I can only assume we will be going, but you never know because they can drop fast. Hopefully we can go though because if we don't then the next apt will probably be during the week and Ashton will be at work. No way am I doing the clinic by myself with a newborn and a very apprehensive little 2 year old. Also, the more we push back clinic visits the longer the treatment is....so hopefully we will make counts every time so that by next spring we will be done with the once a week visits!!! Everyone pray for good counts!!!!

Chase's Room Finished

I know that I posted about finishing Chase's room a while ago. It was the week before we had the baby that I thought..."I need to finish Chase's room." I was going to wait to hang things until I switched Abby and Chase's rooms, but with all the change Chase has had lately I decided to leave them where they are for a while. So here are the final results....



I found these tin signs at Ti Pan for 1.50 each. Brook suggested that I put them on MDF board to give them some dimension. I think they turned out pretty good. They will look even better once we can paint the walls (I want to do the wall that these would be on orange and I think it will give them even more dimension.


My good friend Brooke that helped me do his whole room showed up at my door last week with the sweetest gift. She had a company contact her that wanted to be featured on her website www.allthingsthrifty.com (link on my sidebar). She was more than happy to do this for them, but requested that they make this photo custom photo for Chase's room. I had to hold back the tears when she gave me this gift. She has been such a good support and friend through all we have been through and I appreciate her so much. She is always thinking of others and is one of the few true friends that you find in life. She is AMAZING!!!

More Than Words

My amazing friend Stephanie, that I have had since birth (we were born on the same day in the same hospital) is throwing a vinyl lettering party for Chase. Everyone is invited!!! I know a lot of you do not live in the Cache Valley area and if you don't she is taking orders online. Just go to her website www.vinylmorethanwords.blogspot.com (sorry you have to copy and past the address because I can't get my link to work today) and follow the instructions there. If you order by email she asks that you mention in the email that you are ordering for Chase so she keeps your order separate from her other orders. She has some really cute stuff and will do pretty much anything you want so check it out!!! Thanks to everyone and especially Steph for putting this all together and donating all her time and talent to this, we LOVE YOU ALL!

Can't Believe It Has Been a Week

One week ago today I was in labor with our new little one. He wasn't born till just after midnight so he isn't officially one week old till tomorrow, but I am in awe the whole adventure started a week ago. The kids have been soooo cute with Mason. We have been having lots of fun. It is nice to have a change in the house that we are stuck in all day. Chase went up to clinic last Friday the 10. He and Ashton and Grandpa Prince all left on Thursday just a couple hours after Ashton brought Mason and I home from the hospital. Although, Chase did throw up on the trip up, but because Ashton had help this time he was ready with the bucket and caught it all....no messy clean up required. Ashton said that is was a pretty uneventful trip this time. He did great while at clinic (as good as he does). He still doesn't like when they have to access his port (put a needle in his chest). He screams and we have to hold him down, but other than that he did okay. Ashton said, he came out of anesthesia a little better this week also. Still, he was crying, but not as bad as usual. He also took a really good nap. He slept from Nephi all the way home. The trip always goes better when you aren't by yourself so you think you can do it by yourself and something like Ashton's trip last time happens. It is also nice to have the company, and not make that terrible drive by yourself. Chase's counts came back okay this last week. His platelets just keep getting higher. He has not a bruise on his body and two months ago I thought he was just a normal two year old that got lots of bruises on his shins. Little did I know it was because he has no platelets in his little body. It is nice to see him bruise free. His ANC is back down. Another proof of the roller coaster this chemo puts his little body through. Hopefully the roller coaster will come back up this week.

Hct - 31.6
Platelets - 471 (normal is 150 to 400 so he is above normal)
ANC - 700
His weight was 37 so he has only lost one pound since last week. He has still got another 7 or so lbs to go.

His last back poke (at least for a little while) was last week...YAY! Another positive is that he has a break this week. WE GET TO STAY HOME!!!! All he will do is have the nurse come to the house to draw blood and get CBC. Then next week the same will happen on Thurs. to determine if he will be going up for treatment on Friday. Friday's treatment is count dependent as are all of his treatments for the next 60 days. He only has to go up every 10 days instead of once a week. Since these are all count dependent we potentially can not make many plans in our lives because if he doesn't make counts then it gets pushed back 4 days. They also take blood the morning before his apt. and this is when I am usually packing us up so we can leave in the afternoon to get up to SLC. If is counts are too low then the packing will end, but it is either that or RUSH to pack as soon as we find out if he counts are high enough to go. It is going to be a lot of non planning this next two months. Oh well, what else do we really have to do. We mostly sit home anyway.
His next 60 days only have one back poke and the rest is just IV chemo. I am looking forward to this! It will be a new thing to not have him sedated every time we go up.

Some moments from our first week with Mason....

Meeting some of the family:

Grandma Prince

The boys

Sweet big sister!

Awesome big brother!


Look at all that hair! We always seem to get a good head of hair on all our babies! But they also lose it fast and it comes in blond. We'll see what happens this time!



A couple of highlights.....Well they were for Ashton:

Ashton came out of the room to find Chase doing this....It probably wont be the first time. He was so proud of himself!

I was changing the diaper on Sunday and I had just lifted both his legs to wipe behind his little bum and what comes SHOOTING out???? I have been peed on before, but this was a first! He has tried to do it again since, but I have been prepared. So they have pee pee tee pees, but do they make them for the other end, because we haven't had a pee problem yet. Just the other end. Ashton, instead of helping me while I was dripping in poop, ran and got the camera. Not only did he take this pic, but he thought it would be funny to get video too. Sorry....I didn't post it, but I was laughing so hard I was crying if you can't tell from the picture!

Mason William Prince

Got my dads dimples! My mom did not cause these bruises....it was that terrible vacuum that they PULLED me out with! My mom will tell you the whole story.....

Tuesday Sept. 7 started like any other day. I had a Dr. apt. at 1:30. Dr. Thompson said he would strip my membranes. I have never had this done with my other kids so I had no idea what to expect or if it would work. A couple hours after being home I started to think all it did was cause a lot of pain. I waddled even more than usual and was not having many contractions. I thought I just made myself more uncomfortable than before and still no baby. About 6 pm I started having contractions here and there, but not consistent and not to painful. About 8 pm Ashton thought we should go in because they were every three minutes. The problem with this was that it was because I was up moving around doing stuff. I fixed dinner and vacuumed so it was bringing them on, but they were still not really painful. Ashton was still worried and called his mom to come over. Once we finally got Chase in bed around 9:45 we headed in. They put me in an exam room and said they would check me in another hour to see if I had progressed. If not, they would send me home because they were full and had no room. I was only a couple hours from officially being there on the day I would be induced anyway, but because they were so full I just sat there for the next hour with very few contractions thinking I was going to have to go back home. Once they hooked me up to all the monitors and made me lay in bed the contractions literally stopped. It wasn't until about 11:15 that my contractions came on strong and every 3 minutes. She had checked me when I first came in and I was at a 4. When she came back she said I was at a 6 and would be admitting me. Yeah, baby Mason was on his way. We got to our room and all the blood drawn for the cord blood kit and then the epidural came...yeah! I will say that I haven't really ever hurt. This one he hit a nerve or something because I jumped. It was a zing up my whole back. Once we got that in and going she checked me again and I was an 8. This was about 12:30. I then just rested for the next 45 minutes. They came and put oxygen on me because the baby's heart rate was dipping a little. This didn't really worry me because this has happened with all my kids. She checked me again at 1:15 and I was 9+ and almost thinned out all the way. My water had not broke (it never does on it's own). She said she would go call Dr. Thompson and get him there to break the water and get the baby out. When she was walking out the door I felt something and said to her, "I think my water just broke." She came and checked and told me it was not water, but blood. This put a worried look on her face and she left to call the Dr. Not a minute later she came back in with 6 nurses behind her. They all suited and gloved up the fasted I have seen them. I started to get a little worried, and I think Ashton was about to have a panic attack. I still just tried to stay calm. About five minutes and Thompson was walking (sort of running) through the door. His first words were, "so did you need a little more excitement in your lives?" I guess our lives have been a little boring lately and we needed a little pick me up! They were not sure where the blood was coming from. He broke my water and it was completely clear so at this point they were thinking a placenta abruption. This would mean an emergency C-section. This was the last think I needed in my life right now. Since I was almost completely dilated and effaced we just pushed through it...well kinda. Dr. got out the vacuum and we were going to pull this baby out. He was still really high and wasn't budging. Come to find out he was posterior. So Dr. grabbed his head and turned him, put the vacuum back on and we started pushing/pulling again. Since we weren't letting him come down on his own I was pushing more in one contraction than I ever did with any of my kids. They were even telling me to push once in while without a contraction because we needed him out now. Because I had that dump oxygen mask on I couldn't breath and it was making me gag. I never threw up, but I gagged through the last three or four pushes before he came out. I was about to lose my whole stomach when Dr. said just push one more time to get the shoulder out and we will be done. So I pushed one more time and out he came. They didn't even let Ashton cut the cord because they wanted to get him to the nurses as quick as possible. Dr. Thompson then delivered the placenta and looked at it. He said there wasn't a huge tear anywhere, but there was one area of suspicion. He then drew out all the cord blood for our cord blood banking. I didn't have one tear and this was a big ++++ for me because my kids always kill me coming out. With this one being literally pulled out of me I thought for sure I was going to be sore. But I got lucky, and Mason was my smallest of all my kids....Yay!!! I was able to walk as soon as the epidural wore off. It was a great feeling. Despite all of this happening, Mason is a healthy little boy, and I am doing GREAT! Because of the vacuum he had a major cone head that is already gone, and he also has a lot of bruising on his forehead. Other than that we are very lucky that all ended up well, with just a little extra excitement. It all happened really quick!

Mason William Prince
born on September 8, 2010 at 1:50 am
7 lbs. 8 oz. (this was wonderful...Abby 8.8 lbs and Chase 9.3 lbs)
18 1/2 inches long (little short comparing him to Abby and Chase also)

They were so busy and there were no rooms so they kept me on the labor and delivery floor for the rest of the night. They were also short staffed so there were no nurses to take care of me in the recovery so I got to keep my awesome labor and delivery nurses the rest of the night. Once morning came they moved me upstairs and it has been smooth sailing ever since.

Abby, Chase, and Grandma Prince came to see Mason on Wednesday after Abby finished with school. They were so excited to see their new little brother and even more excited to hold him. Mason has two perfect little dimples that he gets from his dad. And I think he looks a lot like Abby when she was a baby. We will see once he loses the swelling and bruises who he looks like most. Chase was a cutie with his little brother. He was looking and checking him out and saying "look...Mason!" and showing him to us. He was a good big brother holding him. Abby is going to be a great big sister and was also so good holding him. We tried to get a good picture, but either Chase was good in them or Abby was. Most of them Abby closed her eyes so I posted some of both.

Now that it is all over, I can look back and say all is well, but in the moment there were some scary points. Thanks to Heavenly Father for knowing I couldn't handle a C-section right now in my life!!!! He just wanted to have me remember that he is still in control, but then give me some good blessings!
We are so excited to have Mason as part of our family...he is a keeper!!!

Tuesday afternoon before going to my Dr. Apt. Abby is a good photographer!

By Ashton's eyes you would think that it is 2 am....well, it is but he takes most of his pictures this way. I am lucky that his eyes are open period. I took 9 pictures to get one this good!



Chase saw the boppy and he thinks it is his pillow. He grabbed it and said my piyyow, and brought it right by me to sit by us. He was pretty cute!



Notice the sweet forehead bruises!!!


Like Father, like daughter....we took six pictures and one of them had her eyes open, but Chase looked cute in this one so I had to post it.

Mommy Daughter Day!!!

Ashton and Chase had a father son outing last Friday, so Abby and I thought we needed a day to ourselves also, except ours was a little bit more fun. My friend Carrol knew that the boys were headed north and called to say she was taking us on the town! We were so excited. First, we went to Fiesta Fun. Abby has had some tokens from a long time ago that she wanted to go use. She was also excited to ride the go carts. Now, I have never seen these things in motions so it was new to me. She got in and she was off....and about 5 minutes later she made one lap. No kidding these things were like turtles. It went about 1/4 of the speed of her power wheels 4 wheeler at home. We were about to die laughing. We also did some miniature golfing and bumper boats. After the arcades we headed to marve's for some hamburger and awesome shakes. This is one of Abby's favorite. We let her choose the whole day!!! We had a great mommy daughter day and it was so fun to spend some time out of the house with Abby and some good friends. Thanks Carrol for spending the day with us. We had a blast!!!

Father-Son Outing

To start, this is Ashton this time, so be prepped for a long post here.
So when a father determines he would like to go on a father-son outing it is usually camping, a sporting event, or something of excitement. My recent excursion with my boy came due to Dani feeling a little too pregnant to be able to attend us on a trip to SLC for Chase's hospital clinic appointment. The month of September is focused on the spine and spinal fluid so a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) is required every week meaning sedation is involved. When that is the case, the hospital has asked us to not allow him to eat anything for at least 10 hours or drink anything but clear fluids for 2 hours prior to his appointment. Since his appointment was set for 11:30 am for the oncologists and 1:00 pm for the surgical team, I decided it may be easier for Chase to watch movies all morning long in the car rather than sit in a room to keep his mind off of things. This meant I left St. George with Chase at 6:30 am to start the long day.
Things started well until the Blue's Clues episode he was watching started talking about eating breakfast by the time I got to Cedar City. From that point on, food was on his mind and all I could give him was Gatorade. He did very well for the trip up and we made our appointment just in time. The oncologists appointment went well except for when they had to re-access his port to allow for blood draws (CBC). This is at least better than having to stick him with an IV in his arm. He does scream terribly and sweats so bad as he is squirming for the few minutes the access takes that he soaked through the butcher-paper lining on the exam bed and had to be wiped off with a towel when we were done. Once the access was complete, the nurses drew his blood and we waited for the initial results. They came back good (WBC and RBC just under normal, platelets at a 263 and ANC 1.8) and we were on our way to the surgical area.
Everything in the surgical area goes great due to his being unconscious. However, when he comes out of sedation he usually has a tough time. By that I mean he has had a back-up of mucus in his lungs each time so they have to suck it all out of him before they can let him go. It provides him with a nasty cough and puts him in a terrible mood. The mood was bad enough we couldn't even get a final blood pressure reading on him before we left due to his screaming.
Once he gets in the car, actually outside the hospital, he is usually just fine. He requested "Donalds" (McDonalds) for "nuggets" which he was provided but never ate a bite of them. This surprised me since it was now about 3:00 pm and he hadn't eaten since about 7:30 the night before. He promptly fell asleep and I did not hear from him until about Beaver. He awoke and was asking for a bowl of Craisins. He completed the bowl in just under 5 minutes and asked for more. I thought, "Why not, he hasn't eaten and is likely very hungry". About 30 minutes later just before reaching Cedar City I heard him throwing up everything he had just eaten. Now driving with one hand and trying to hold a bowl with the other for your boy to throw-up into is a trick I didn't know I could pull off. I exited the next exit and tried to clean him up as best I could and thought - "I better take his temperature just to make sure everything is OK". His temp was high 99 to low 100 so it made me a bit nervous he was getting ill. I jumped back in the van and started driving home but only made it about 10 minutes before he started throwing-up again. This time I was at least in Cedar City boundaries and was able to pull off in a gas station.
I changed Chase into his pajamas and took his temp again to find it now 100-100.5. Now when Chase gets a temp of 100 we are supposed to watch it for one hour and if it does not go away we are to call the hospital and likely be sent to the ER for immediate antibiotics. That being the case, I began driving again (a little faster now) in hopes to have him in St. George within an hour in case I had to take him to the ER. As luck would have it - I was 20 minutes from home and hit traffic that had me at a stand-still for between 15-20 minutes. At this point I also realized I had not gotten gas and the light came on to say I was low. I looked back at Chase to see how he was doing and he looked like he had been through a war. I was getting pretty nervous when the traffic suddenly began getting better and we were back on track. I stopped off just before reaching our exit to check his temp again to see if I was simply going to the ER instead of home and found his temp to be maintaining in the 100-100.5 range. I called Dani and told her the recent news and she said to just come home and we would call the hospital.
Upon getting home, I almost collapsed in the chair as Dani started visiting with Chase. I was exhausted so I had Dani call the hospital. They immediately asked what his blood counts had been and they were relieved to hear they were good numbers and said he would be able to fight off a low-grade fever but if it got to 101.5 we were to take him in. I told Dani since she was uncomfortable that I would check on him through the night every couple of hours. By 2:00 am his temp was back to a normal range and he slept quite well the rest of the night. It may be the longest day I have had in quite some time and now know if I am going to be doing an up-and-back trip in one day, I am taking someone with me. Not exactly the Father-Son Outing I had been hoping for, but at least my boy is still with us.

A Lot of Hangin' Out at Home

We have been in the house a lot!!! I haven't minded this. We live in a HOT desert and I am extremely pregnant. I have no problem staying in the A/C house! The kids have done really well with being in the house. I think Abby gets her fill of being out by going to school, and Chase just likes to go on rides to take Abby places. There is a old farm on the way to school and Chase likes to drive past it every day so we can see, "Combine Frank." For those of you who don't know, that is the one on the movie cars that chases Lightening and Mater when they go tractor tipping. There is is old run down combine and it isn't even red like Frank, it is green. But Chase took one look at it the first day of school and yelled out "Combine Frank!" I didn't even know he knew what a combine was. I guess his mom taught him at some point and just forgot. Again, I don't remember much so I am sure that is the case.
Anyway, so spending time in the house hasn't been too bad. The last couple days we have had a lot of fun either dancing (Chase is actually quite good and he sings with the songs), playing games, painting, making all sorts of crafts, or finishing up projects before the baby comes. Chase and Abby played a little game of twister. When Abby got this game out I immediately volunteered to be the spinner person. Though, Ashton thought it would be funny to try and watch me play...I don't think I would have been able to get up off the floor once I fell. That meant Ashton got to play. Dad gets out fast, so the kids were the only ones in the picture. Notice Chase's leg kick! He was really trying HARD!

Today we finished hanging things on Chase's bedroom walls. Yes, I am extremely slow at getting this done. I got his room put together months ago. I have pictures on my blog in May...I didn't procrastinate at all. I had good reasons. I was going to switch Abby and Chase's rooms. But now that all this has happened I don't think Chase needs one more change in his life so I am leaving him in his room and Abby in hers at least for the time being. So all the things I had for the wall actually got put up today with the help of my two awesome boys!!!
Don't they make a good team?



Staying in the house isn't the worst thing that we could have to do. It really has been a lot of fun. It makes the creativity part of my mind start to think and I have to find things to entertain the kids. If anyone has done something fun at home lately let me know. I am soon to run out of all of my creative juices!!!!