I Won't Let Go

This song is for my little man.  I LOVE Rascal Flatts, and then they go and write a song like this.  I have a hard time listening without bursting out in tears.  I have said many times that I wish I could fight this fight for Chase.  It seems like it would make everything so much better.  LOVE YOU CHASE....THIS ONE IS FOR YOU!

The Life of Being in Maintenance

So everyone is always counting down to the day that they are in Maint.  Although it is supposed to be a little easier than the first 6-9 months of treatment it is still no walk in the park.  In fact, when the oncologist walked in to see Chase on Friday morning he said, "Congrats, you are in maint." then he followed it by, "this doesn't mean that it is easy breezy though."  We still have to be careful and try not to get sick.  He can still get deathly ill by getting one little bug.  If he gets a fever, we still get to go to the hospital to have IV antibiotics and cultures.  He still has MULTIPLE meds and chemos that he has to take on a daily basis, and he still has to be sedated and get those nasty back pokes.  All that being said, the good part is that he only has to have IV chemo once a month now instead of once a week.  He only has to to to Primary Children's on the months that he needs a back poke.  He can do the other IV chemo here at Dixie.  This is the biggest part for us.  The weekly trips to Salt Lake were getting very old.  So if you do the math then we only have to go up north every three months.  THIS IS HUGE!!!  Our next apt for the clinic up north is not until May 13th.  You should have seen my face when we were leaving clinic and I said, "I need to make our next apt....for May 13th."  I had the biggest smile on my face. 
So now our primary doctor here in town kinda takes over and communicates with primary's the whole time he is treating Chase.  He just becomes the oncologists up north's eyes and ears.  He does the physical and then calls them to tell them what he sees.  After our apts. at the doc here then we head straight over to the hospital and he gets his IV chemo for the month.  Along with this chemo (Vincristine, which he has had numerous times), he has to be on steroids for five days.  So we do steroids once a month, but since it is a smaller dose and only five days I hope he doesn't have all the side effects.  Only time will tell with this one because every kid reacts differently.  So far this time he hasn't been eating more, but has been a little crabby.  The steroid pill is two pills in the morning and then two at night.  He also has to take Methotrexate (another chemo) every Thurs.  The dose on this one ends up so he is taking 5 pills.  Then he also has another chemo called 6MP which he has taken in the past.  It is one that can not be taken with anything that has calcium in it because they compete with each other.  So since he usually is drinking milk right up till bedtime and I don't want him to stop since he needs that (chemo can make his bones a lot softer) then we are going to be waking him up every night before Ashton and I go to bed to give him this one.  This is one that he takes everyday for the next three years so after a while I am sure he will get used to it.  It is me I am worried about though because after the kids are in bed my mind shuts off.  It is like everything has been done and there is no need to think anymore.  I am hoping I can get this routine down so that I don't go to bed without giving him that last chemo pill.  Then he is still taking his antibiotic morning and night, but only on Mondays, and Tuesdays.  He has been taking this one since the beginning and will continue it for the next three years.  This one protects him from getting a type of pneumonia that can kill him if is immune system is low.  So that is kinda important. 
So you can why this little guy has become my new best friend......

So our last trip up to PCMC until May (YAY!  I just like to keep saying it) was actually quite awesome.  Chase did great.  I was a little nervous to take the trip by myself, but in the end my mom ended up meeting me there and riding home with me which turned out to be a huge help.  I needed the focus time of all the meds they were telling me about and it is hard to focus when you have a two year old that wants to play at the same time.  So my mom distracted Chase while I got to talk to the docs.  This was also the first time I have not taken Mason with me.  It made the packing and sleeping situations much simpler and I am sure that Mason appreciated it.  Ashton's parents were in Hawaii so we had a little different set up that we usually would.  Our sweet bishop's wife very willingly kept Mason and Abby so Chase and I could head north before dark.  Then Ashton was here in town with them the rest of the time.  I am so thankful for all the people that have been so willing and able to help out with the kids.  Abby has been well taken care of by so many neighbors and family.  It is nice to know that I don't have to worry when I leave because I know they are in good hands. 
Chase's apt. on Friday was not until 11 and his RTU to get his back poke was not until 12:30.  I had to find a way to distract him from eating or drinking until after he woke up from his back poke.  So we took that time to go out and see all the animals that we have never had time to see at the place we stay.  Chase calls it Goofy's Farm.  This is because of the suit of armor in the corner of the room (he has seen Mickey's Three Musketeers and Goofy wears a big suit of armor).  Then there is this huge barn full of fun animals.....so it has become Goofy's farm.  He had a great time seeing all the animals.

 There were baby bunnies.  My kids have been begging for a bunny.  Their cousins have one and since we have told them they can't have a dog right now, maybe a bunny would be a good substitute.  He loved holding this little one.  I will admit it is pretty cute!

 Inside the barn upstairs they had this cool rocking horse.

 Chase looks a little drunk.....

 Chase loved the little goat.

 The story behind this goose is sad, but in our case it became a little comical.  This goose honked all night and all day.  It's mate was eaten by a coyote and apparently he is not so happy about it.  He is out to get everyone and everything.  Sad huh?  I just picture him sitting there crying all day and all night.  So we were told to be careful because he just is out roaming and will attack you because he is so mad.  So we stayed behind this gate that was closed at the time.  He didn't move for a good 10 minutes so we thought we would get brave.  I mean really what harm can a goose do?  So when we opened the gate he moved back a bit.  We walked around him and went over to see the other goose that was out there.  He followed us, but we kept our eye on him.  We spent another five minutes or so out there and he kept getting closer and closer, but very very slowly.  My mom was holding Chase and I watched him creep up to them and then he just darted.  I yelled to them, "RUN! He is coming after you."  My mom took off running as the goose ran after  her nipping at her shoes.  The funny part is that Chase kept saying all night before we even went out there that the goose was going to get his toes.  Little did I know that he was right.  We were laughing the hole time we ran back up to the guest house.

 So when we got in the car to leave he came running right at us.  Did he really think he could take on a car head on?  We of coarse stopped the car and he ran around to my mom's window and was just honking at her.  So she rolled down the window and took a picture.   Again we were laughing even though it really is quite sad when you think about why it is he was so mad.

 This is the front of the guest house that we stayed in so many times.  I can not tell the Flamms thank you enough for all they have done for us.  It was so nice (as I have said a million times) for Chase to have somewhere familiar to go to and look forward to every time we have been up there.  There is a little more excitement there than he can find in a hotel room.  These guys are amazing and we have been so very blessed to meet so many people like them through our cancer Journey.  I have said in the past, this is not a journey I would have EVER picked.  It has been a trial and we still have a long way to go, but I can not imagine not knowing all the good people that I have met a long the way.

 Clinic was pretty much same old, same old.  Chase did get a little crabby waiting for his LP because all he wanted was a snack.  They brought in some transformers to see if they would help with the distracting and I think they ended up distracting me more than him.  He wanted them to be folded down into cars.  Do you know how stinkin' hard those things are to get all folded up.  I bet I worked on one of them for a good 30 minutes.

Before the toys came.....poor little boy just wants some food.

 I swear I will never buy one of these for him because I can't get them to "transform."

So we decided that we needed to celebrate Chase's getting into Maintenance so we went with Hope Kids to Monster Jam that night after his clinic apt.  He LOVED the "big big dumptrucks".  I kept telling him they were monster trucks, but it didn't matter.  They are still big big dumptrucks and I don't think that is going to change any time soon.  I have never been to a monter truck show.  It was cool, but between every truck driving they had a little (well, a lot) of down time.  I can't believe they couldn't pick up the pace a little.  There were times I thought Chase was going to fall asleep, and other times I think he did fall asleep.  Then the trucks would start up again and he would perk up.  Honestly I bet that could have been a 30 minute show but with all the breaks ended up 2 hours.  It was fun though, and Chase liked the trucks so it was a good little celebration for him.  I think he was just excited that he got to go somewhere.  We haven't been out for such a long time that is was just fun to be somewhere other than our house.

Chase sportin' his blue ear plugs!

Just hanging out waiting for the next truck to go.  I really think he took a few naps with his eyes open.

 Chase loves the construction trucks.  He has a book that talks about all of them so when they came out fixing the track and bringing out more cars he actually took my camera away from me and was getting pictures of them.  He was probably more excited to see them come out then he was the monster trucks. 

After the Monster Jam we decided that between my mom and I we could make it back to St. George.  So we loaded up on Dr. Pepper and stopped at McDonald's (Chase's request) and then we headed home.  We got out of Salt Lake around 10 so we didn't get home until close to 3 am, but it was worth it.  Chase had a great time and we were able to celebrate our new phase....Maintenance.   Watch out cancer, Chase is ready to fight!

We made it to Maintenance

The toughest kid I know........His name is Chase Prince.  I love this kid with all my heart.  Our journey the last 7 months has been rough, but he has been a little fighter.  We got the phone call around 11 am on Thursday saying "HE MADE IT!" Yes, he has fought through what will hopefully be the toughest 7 months of his treatment.  As long as everything goes as planned (you can't really put the word plan and cancer in the same sentence) Chase will be done with his treatment 3 years from yesterday.  He made it to the phase they call "Maintenance."  In this phase he has lots of different meds and chemos that he takes every day.  I will get into all the details in another post.  I mostly wanted this post to be a "HOORAY WE MADE IT" post to celebrate the first 7 brutal months of his fight.  And something to mark the beginning of his road to complete and total recovery.  Look out cancer, here comes Chase and he is going to kick your butt!!!

If you click on this video and go to the actual YouTube website to watch it then you can make it increase to full screen and it is a lot easier to see all the pictures.

The first song was written for St. Jude's Hospital, the second was written for Chase by a foundation called Songs of Love that writes song for kids that are critically ill.  Even though the background singers are a bit over the top Chase loves it and thinks it is cool that they keep saying his name over and over.

Valentine Festivities

I will admit I did go a little over board this year for Valentines.  There were so many cute things at the dollar spot at target and it wasn't until I had bought them all that I remembered that I had already gotten the kids both a CD.  Chase's was his song of love from a foundation that makes songs for kids like Chase and they ask a bunch of questions about him and then put it in a song.  I will be posting his song soon, but don't get too excited.  It actually made me laugh because the back ground singers are quite cheezy, but what a wonderful foundation to write personalized songs for these kids.  Abby's was a CD full of princess tea party songs with her name in them.  It is actually really cute.  Mason didn't get a CD because I was pretty sure he wouldn't care, but he got a little stuffed dog named Scout.  Ashton's cousins introduced me to this cute dog.  It also says Mason's name and sings songs to him and knows his favorite color and food.  He LOVED it!  He was smiling and laughing at it when I gave it to him.  Ashton didn't know I had gotten them anything (really, when have I not gotten the v day presents) but he was being a good day and got his kids the Just Dance 2 for the Wii.  They got a kick out of it because Grandma Debbie had just brought it down to play a few weeks ago and they loved it.   So when they opened it they were so excited and we danced all night (he gave it to them early the night before because he wanted to play it with them).  It is pretty funny to watch the people dancing.  Ashton recorded me without me knowing and all I can say is WOW.....I don't know where I got my dancing skills, but they are sweet to say the least!

 Chase with his new color changing Lightening McQueen and his valentine socks from the dollar spot.

 Then that night we knew that we wouldn't be going out anywhere for lack of a babysitter (we haven't really left Chase or Mason with anyone but Ashton's mom, my mom, or Ashton's assistant from work) so being Valentine's day and having one of those three in Hawaii, the other lives 6 hrs away, the the third has a life we knew we would be staying home.  I had just come to terms with this and was not going to do anything about it and was going to focus on the kids.  After a little Relief Society get together last week I was not okay with that idea anymore.  I decided that Ashton and I needed to spend some time together and do something other than lay around and watch TV.  So I invited over one of his good friends from school and his wife to hang out.  They don't have kids so they are usually good even last minute to come over.  I sent the boys out on a scavenger hunt.  They had to do three things.  1. obtain a gift for your wife with the funds provided.  I gave them a baggie full of change, about $2, and I also took away their wallets.  2. obtain a flower for your wife spending no money.  This was not as hard as I wished it would have been because we are in St. George not where it is cold so I knew they would find one somewhere to pick.  3. go to Ashton's mom's house and make a valentine day car for your wife in her scrapbook corner.  So these three little tasks took them TWO HOURS.  I was getting a little worried, but it was okay because Brittany was still at school and I didn't want them to come back before she got there with the food.  She picked up Olive Garden on her way from school.  No, I didn't cook like a good wife would because when I sent the boys away I used the time to put kids to bed and set the table and light candles and such.  Once the boys finally made it back they gave us what they had found.  It was very interesting.....

Ashton's came in a home made envelope with the flowers he found taped to them.  Then the heart card was inside with a poem that he stole from the internet.  It was the cheeziest poem ever.  One of those that is so deep I don't even know what the meaning was.  Maybe next year he will use some creative juices and write a poem of his own.  But the card making skills I will give him some credit for.  It turned out good.  To the side of my card is my gift.  Ashton told me that I could not post that part of the night, but since it is my blog there is not much he can do about it.  He said that the most time they spent was trying to find two gifts to buy with only a little over $2.  They tried the dollar store and found nothing.  They tried Target's dollar spot and found nothing.  Eventually they ended up buying us some wisps (for cleaning your teeth) and then they went into a gas station.  Oh wait, back up....THEY didn't go in, Andre went in because they thought it would look bad if two men came in together on Valentines day buying what they did.  Andre asked the clerk to make his nickles, dimes, and pennies into quarters and then he headed to the bathroom.  Apparently he played it up too saying things like, "you still have that machine in the bathroom."  The clerk said "sure do." When Andre was leaving the clerk wished him a Happy Valentines day and he hoped that the night turned out well for him.  I am sure it was pretty comical.  

So here is my envelope, card and lovely gift that I would not use in 100 yrs because I am pretty sure we would end up with another baby and I am just not quite ready for that in my life right now.

 After dinner we played a few games.  One of which was picionary with pudding and drawing with your tongue.  It is hard to make anything look like it is supposed to with your tongue, but we had a lot of fun.

 And this is just my spaz of a husband with pudding on his chin.  We ended up having a really fun night when just days before we had absolutely nothing planned. 

 With all of the traveling we have been doing with Chase it takes up our weekends.  Taking turns going to church is 6 hours of the day.  He goes to a random ward in the morning and then I go to our ward in the afternoon or the other way around.  So that fills up everything but Sunday evening.  And the week nights filled with dinner, meds, bath, story, fill up water, rub feet with oil (DoTerra, and we have done it every night.  Either they work or Chase is just lucky and has never gotten even a cold), brush teeth, say prayers, gather the needed toys for bed, turn on all the night lights, tuck in bed, get back out of bed because part of the routine was not perfect, tuck back into bed.......etc.   I know this is like most parents routines, but it is the weekends that we used to get some "US" time and we really haven't gotten much of this lately.  We needed some time for us to just have fun together.  He is such a good husband and dad and I am so glad to have him as a part of my life.  I know that my life would not be complete without him.  We also took some time to watch our wedding video that we have not seen in years.  It was a little over the top, but it was fun to watch.  To remember just how giddy you are on your wedding day.  Every time the camera was on us we both had smiles from ear to ear.  I love this guy and can not imagine life without him.  It seems like we are pushing through this time in our lives knowing there will be an end to the cancer one day, but we forget that we need to make time for us and not just count on the future.  Yes, it is a lot harder to find the "us" time now that our lives has changed, but because it is harder it makes that time we spend together that much more meaningful.  It makes us work for our marriage and not just float along.  I don't know why but the song "what don't kill you only makes you stronger" just keeps coming to my mind.  Our family is thriving and doing very well.  Ashton and I despite the much needed us time are doing well.  It is hard, but I know in the end we are going to be so much stronger.  Without the trials and hard times we can't grow.  I know I keep saying this, but it has become my motto.  Every day when I am challenged beyond what I think I can handle, I stop and think about how strong it is making me.  I can do this.  I LOVE my family, I LOVE my kids, and most of all I LOVE my husband.  He is my best friend and it seems like we are pulling each other through this little bump in our lives by holding each other up.  When I am having a bad day, he seems to be having a good one, and when he is having a bad day, then I am having a good one.  I think Heavenly Father has blessed us with that much knowing that we need each other right now.  Ashton is my rock and I know that our family would not make it through this with out him.  Even when the kids are having a bad day, when he walks in the door it is like they have a second wind and are so happy to see dad.  He is just like a goofy big brother to them and they love to play with him.  I know I need to tell him more often, but he is my everything and I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband!

My Big Boy

Chase has grown up in a week.  He is pretty much potty trained (a few accidents when we get to busy playing, but really did so much better than I could have ever imagined).  Then Chase's nurse came to access him this last week and you know what he did?  He opened the door (instead of hiding like he usually does) and then he said, "come in, I am a big boy."  He got up on the bar stool and said I am a big boy again.  I asked if he wanted to sit on my lap and he said no.  This made me a little nervous because he has never done it all on his own.  I have to be there to hold down his arms and legs while he is screaming.  This week, he decided he was going to be a big boy.  As you can tell from the pictures it was a success.  He sat there by himself so I got pictures of his nurse for the first time ever and he didn't cry or even flinch.  He also did the same thing later in the day when we found out he didn't make counts.  He laid right down for me and let me pull out his needle without even flinching or crying.  I am so proud of my little man.  He is growing up so fast.  The sad part is that part of his growing up is him getting used to being poked every week without crying.  Just not what I had in mind for his childhood when I held him as a baby.  But if we take our trials as they come at us and know that we can face this and that Heavenly Father will be with us every step of the way, our trials only make us stronger.  I can tell you right now that Chase is going to be the toughest boy around so watch out.  Once he gets this cancer beat you are not going to want to mess with him.  He is going to be one tough cookie.  I love my little guy!!!

Getting his oxygen levels.

 Listening to all the insides.

 Cleaning off his skin before access.

 Just finished being access and he is still a happy camper.  Now the nurse takes out the "red juice" Chase calls it.

Hot Air Balloons

We live in an area of town that the hot air balloons fly over just about every weekend.  I have always wondered if they have any control of where they go once they get up in the air.  I found out this weekend that they do to an extent, but not with any kind of exactness. 
On Sunday I was in the den putting together some last minute things for singing time in primary (I was asked to substitute).  I heard this weird noise, but I was in a groove and didn't stop what I was doing.  It just kept getting louder and then my phone rang.  It was my neighbor that lives behind me.  He was calling to tell me that there was a balloon landing on our roof.   Well, almost and from his view point I am sure it looked like it was on our roof.  It landed in the road right in front of our house and our front yard isn't big so it was just about on our house.  Kinda crazy!!!  So I grabbed the kids and we all ran outside (yes, still in our PJ's because we have 2:30 church and why get dressed twice if you aren't going anywhere right??).  My  kids were in heaven.  The guys running the balloon were so nice.  They yelled for the kids to come and sit inside and get a picture.  They pulled on the cord that makes the hot air blow up into the balloon.  My kids were in awe.  Then they had Chase help them put the balloon away which was also fun to watch.  One of the guys kept telling Chase he had a sweet hair cut.  I am pretty sure he was just trying to get me to say something without asking questions.  I finally offered up the info as to why he has a sweet haircut and he said, "how does he sit to get his chemo for the hours it takes to get chemo?"  I knew that he must be a member of the cancer family.  So I asked him how he knew that it took so long to get chemo and he told me his wife had breast cancer.  I am so amazed how many lives in this world cancer has touched.  There is really not too many people that don't know someone that is relatively close to them in their lives that has or has had cancer.  It is so sad and I know that if we keep fighting and pushing the right people we will one day have a cure for this NASTY disease.  Anyway, these guys were so cute with my kids and he even asked for our address and is going to send them a certificate saying they flew in a hot air balloon (even though it never left the ground).  Thanks to these sweet men my kids had a very memorable Sunday morning.

It's official...we are germ FREAKS!

After my last post I couldn't go to bed tonight without posting what Abby asked for in her prayers tonight.  On top of blessing that "Chase will not have any more cancer, not one little bit, like this" (and she held up her fingers showing that there was not one little bit) she went on to bless that "we will have no more germs on our bodies, even none from school."  Not only have I become a germ freak, but my poor kids are going to be the same way.  Abby even told me one day when she got home from school, "mom, I am sorry.  One of the girls at school was sick, but she REALLY wanted to sit by me."  Yes, I am that sad mom that told her kid to try not to sit by the sick kids at school.  But Abby being the sweet girl she is couldn't tell this girl no and so now our whole family (minus Chase and Mason) have colds.  I am sure it is not from that one little girl, but I swear that elementary school is infested with germs!!!  I have a fun post that I need to do, but instead of being on the computer today I tried to take a nap and get past this nasty cold.  Hope it helped speed up the recovery time, but if not I sure did enjoy it.

Monumental Outing...or not....

So I can honestly say that Chase has not been in a store of any kind since July.  I think he has been inside two restaurants when he had high counts a few times, and to a few Hope Kids events.  But I have never taken him in a store because I figured it was not necessary and why expose him to a bunch of germs when it isn't somewhere that he needs to be or would even care to be.  I thought the day he set foot inside a store would be this huge monumental milestone.  (Ya, I know that sounds weird, but we like to just wander the store because it gets us out and since diagnosis we haven't been able to do it).  Tonight we had a family outing and went for a ride to Deseret Book to get a book for the kids that had a coupon in the mail for $1.45 for a Who's Your Hero book (they are my kids fav so I couldn't pass it up).  I get inside while Ashton waits in the car with the kids.  The kids (and especially Chase) don't usually come in with me so we don't even make them put shoes on when we leave the house.  I am sure this is only something that happens in St. George because if we were anywhere else right now it would be too cold and I would make them put shoes on.  Anyway, I get in the store and Ashton calls me and says, "come out here now and get your son he says he needs to pee."  Being new at the potty training thing I didn't even think about the fact that he may have to go to the bathroom.  I didn't bring a mask for him let alone shoes to go into a public place.  I run out and grab him as fast as I can and run with him in my arms back into Deseret Book.  He must not be dying to pee because he is in amazement that he is in a store.  He pointed out everything on our way to the bathroom and each time I am saying, "don't touch that, don't touch that."   He just keeps saying, "look mom, that my favorite book" over and over to every book he sees.  I know that the hospital is one of the dirtiest places we could possibly go and Deseret Book is a lot cleaner than the hospital, but we HAVE to go to the hospital.  He does not HAVE to go to Deseret Book so my whole outlook on the situation had changed.  Once we get in the bathroom (remember he has no shoes on) I make him hold on to my neck as tight as he can and I pulled his pants down.  Then cradled him like a baby and didn't let him touch anything.  If I had this all on video you would think I was insane.  I again made him hold onto my neck (so picture a BIG two yr old, almost three, hanging from my neck with his arms like a monkey).  I slide his pants back on and we scrub his hands even though he touched absolutely nothing.  I then tell him to hold onto me tight and I sprint him back out to the car taking the most direct route to the door, but at the same time dodging any isles that have anyone in them because I am sure they are carrying some disease that will make my child sick. 
What has my life come to?  I think I will forever more be a germ-a-phobe.

LOTS and LOTS of Time at Home

This is a long journal update for myself and there are no pictures so do not read this unless you have a desire to fall asleep. 
I don't want to in any way complain because it has been so nice to not go to Salt Lake every weekend, but I am WAY BEYOND cabin fever right now.  I think those little trips north, as much work as they were, were actually keeping me somewhat sane.  We last went to PCMC on January 13th.  So we have had quite a few weeks at home now.  We have had a lot of fun, but with fun comes a messy house.  I feel like my life has become one continuous routine that I can not change.  We do the same thing every day.  Well we change it up a little and try to find different games to play, but being in the house is making me feel trapped.  We drove out to the new airport the other day because we needed to get out.  The hard thing now about car rides is that Mason isn't a fan of driving for too long, or it is his nap time and he needs to be in his bed because his car seat naps are like little cat naps.  So we have small windows to take small car rides.  Anyway, we went out to the new airport and just watched a few of the little planes land and take off.  Chase thought it was pretty cool and Mason stayed quiet for a good 20 minutes so we sat and watched for a while. 
The reason we are at home is just that they hit him really hard with some big time chemo's and now they are letting his blood counts recover before starting the next phase.  His ANC last week (thurs) was 400 and his Hct was 27% (both on the low side).  But his Platelets still looked good.  So all we are hoping for this coming week is that his ANC can get up to 750.  They have told us to not expect it too because most kids don't, but I have come to find that I don't listen to them because every kids is different and when it comes to Chase and his blood counts he always seems to do the opposite of what they think he is going to do.  So we will see on Thurs when we get results back.  We now have to start into the phase of are we going???  Are we not???   I hate when his apts. are count dependant because it makes my life a lot harder when I have to pack so much to just go to one little apt.  When we don't end up going I feel like I have wasted a lot of time prepping.  So needless to say, I am ready to get the ball rolling so I hope he makes counts this week.
He has not had any meds these last two weeks and I can sure tell a difference.  He has always been happy when on chemo, but he is two and I think they don't know how to complain at that age (at least about pain...he does enough complaining when Abby has the toy he wants).  But when he doesn't have chemo in his system I can totally tell.  He is feeling good right now.  So much that he couldn't even sleep he had so much energy.  I have always had the motto that if I take them to the park or out somewhere then they get tired for the day and will sleep good. He doesn't have that luxury so he has pent up energy and he doesn't know what to do with it.  So he keeps getting out of bed.  We have tried EVERYTHING....take away toys, tell him he can't watch shows, take away blankets, etc....  So the other night he was screaming in his room so loud because we had taken away a certain toy (and this is like 2 am).  He was so loud that Mason and Abby both woke up.  We had honestly had it and didn't know what to do so we put a pillow and a blanket on our closet floor (walk in with no door so it isn't like we are being that cruel ).  We laid him in our closet and told him he was in "night time" time out.  He screamed and was so mad, but at this point we didn't care because we are far enough away from the other kids that they can not hear him.  After a few minutes we asked him if he wanted to sleep in his own nice comfy bed with all his toys and he said yes.  He got out of bed again the next night so we did the same.  After two times I think he is getting it.  We have had a nice peaceful sleep the last two nights with no interruptions.....YAY!  The other kicker is that those same nights Chase kept getting up Mason has been trying to figure out how to sleep on both his back and his stomach now that he can roll.  We were going in and flipping him over when he was mad, but I decided to stop because I could do it all night and he just rolls back.  So we were listening to him cry for parts of the night also.  I am sure many people have stories like this so I don't want to sound like I am complaining, but man there were times I wanted to put Chase out side and show him just how nice it was to have a nice warm bed and not be out sleeping in the cold.  I did resist though! 
So the lack of updates are mostly because we don't really have anything new in our lives right now. We just stay home.  It has been good for the potty training though.  We for sure have the #1 down, but it is the #2 that is still in the works.  Chase just holds it until he can honestly physically not stand it anymore.  He finally goes, but it is not pleasant to say the least.  So we quit all prizes for #1 and he only gets them for #2.  Hopefully he can get to where he is comfortable going because today we ran to the toilet every 2 minutes all morning.  He finally relaxed and went about noon.  He was proud, but we accomplished nothing this morning but running, pulling down pants, litterally 2 seconds on the toilet, and then him saying he was done.  I read books, and turned on a movie on my lap top to get him to sit longer than 2 seconds.  None of it worked until he was finally ready to just let it go.  Poor kid.  Hope we can get past this soon.

Abby Rides Bike/Gma Debbie Gpa Brad

Chase made a little bed right in the middle of the kitchen and Grandpa is always looking for a chance to take a nap so he laid right down with Chase.  He didn't know that it would turn into a game!!!

We went outside to play and I just mentioned to Abby that we should try her bike without training wheels again.  We haven't really tried since it got cold and now it is warming up again I thought maybe she should try.  I think that getting her little scooter for Christmas helped a lot with her balance because I didn't even have to help her and she was off.  I still ran beside her just incase because if you know Abby and she fell then she would not try again.  I didn't want it to be a bad experience.  She  can now go out and ride it all by herself.  I am so proud of her.  Now we have to get her confident enough that she can ride her new big one that Santa brought to her!

Chase has a book called the Digger Book.  He loves this book.  I could probably get a better recording of him reading it, but this one was pretty cute so I had to post it.  You gotta love the "voices."