T minus 1...

One more chemo visit, that is!! Friday was Riley's monthly clinic visit and chemo...and now she only has 1 more to go!! Very exciting!!

Fridays visit went well. All of her blood counts were good, and her ANC was a little high at 3,400. They would normally want to adjust the amount of her nightly chemo pill to adjust this, but given her history of her counts bottoming out when they try this...they decided to just leave well enough alone. We then had a chance to discuss what happens from here. Riley will have her normal clinic and chemo visit in 4 weeks...and then 5 days later we will return for her final spinal tap and bone marrow aspirate. Once we get the all clear on the bone marrow results, we can schedule the surgery to remove her port!! I was, however, under the impression that once we made it thru December's visit we would be able to take a little "vacation" from our monthly trips into the medical center...but I was wrong. She will still have monthly check ups and blood counts for the first year, and then every 3 months for the next year...and so on. But I'm okay with that, because there will be no more chemo and better yet - NO MORE STEROIDS!!!!! That, in itself, is reason to celebrate!!!

Happy Birthday Hayden!!

Today our sweet little cowboy turns 3 years old!! Even though we spend most of our days wishing your mouth had an off switch, we love your sense of humor and WE LOVE YOU!! Hope you enjoy your day, my sweet little man!!!!!

We even had a surprise appearance from Wedding Barbie Riley!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Today was Josh's birthday, and because he is SO good to us...he cooked us a fabulous dinner of fried chicken to celebrate. We love you, and hope you had a great birthday!! Thank you for being the best Daddy and husband we could EVER ask for.

We also want to say Thank you to all the Veterans out there. We appreciate all you do for us!!

Are you...?

• Are you ready to start Christmas shopping? Well, I may just be able to help. Starting Thursday (Nov. 12th) thru Sunday (Nov. 15th) Gap is having their Give & Get promotion...meaning you can download your coupon here and save 30% at any of the Gap stores - Gap, Gap Outlet, Banana Republic, or Old Navy (online or in-store). The best part is they will donate 5% of all sales to The Leukemia & Lymphona Society...well, there's actually a couple of charities you could choose from, but this is the one that happens to stand near and dear to my heart. So, happy shopping!!

• Are you registered to be a bone marrow donor? If not, please PLEASE consider joining the registry. It is SO easy to register, and you could possibly be saving someones life. There is an 18 year old young man, Jonathan, that I keep up with thru his carepage...he was diagnosed with AML (acute mylocytic leukemia) and recently relapsed. The original plan was to get him back into remission with chemo and do a bone marrow transplant. Everything was going as planned, until they were (and still are) unable to find a bone marrow match. The best the registry could come up with is a 50% match, and that is just not good enough. Jonathan is about to start another round of chemo, to keep the leukemia cells at bay while they continue the search...but it is only a matter of time before the leukemia cells become resistant to the chemo he is being given. You could be the match that could save Jonathan's life...so PLEASE consider doing this, if you haven't already. Just click here to learn all you need to know...BE THE MATCH!!

Halloween - part 2

After the party Saturday morning, we headed home for a much needed nap...and started the fun back over again!! In all honesty, I am so thankful Halloween is only a 1 day event...it's exhausting!!

Our first stop was to Ms. Vicki & Bob's house, which could have very easily been our last stop because their bags were already overflowing when we left!!

Then we went to see Granny & Grandaddy...where we stocked up on my personal favorite, swiss cake rolls!! Who needs candy when you can have Little Debbie...not me, that's for sure!!

Our little Sugar-loving Spider, checking out his goods...the boy loves all things sugar!!

Our next stop was the Fall Festival, where the kids played lots of games and won lots of prizes.

This was easily their favorite part of the festival...these kids love animals, especially puppies!!

Now, anyone have any ideas on whay my kids should be for Halloween next year? I seriously need to start working on it, or else it will be the night before like always. All suggestions welcome!!

Halloween - part 1

Halloween morning we got to go to a costume party for Dawson's birthday. There were a lot of fun games for the kids, and they all had a blast. It was a great way to kick off Halloween 2009!!

They had a train to ride

and, of course, there was cake!!

I think Brady likes the cake!!

The pretty little Mermaid, Avery.

Jackson was proud of his new rat toy

Hayden, Riley, Avery, Brady, Jackson & Dawson...the cutest little Motley Crew EVER!!

**Just for fun, here is the same little Motley Crew at my friend Loralyn's baby shower back in March of 2007...minus Brady - he was still just a twinkle in his mommy's eye!!

Avery, Hayden, Riley, Jackson & Dawson

I have always loved the way Dawson is looking at Riley in this picture...I would love to know what was going through his mind.

Once upon a time...

there was a flower,

a beautiful
and unique flower.

All of a sudden, she saw a spider...

"Aaahhh...a spider" the flower yelled.

A big,

scary looking spider!!

"don't worry, pretty flower..." said the spider

"I'm a nice spider!!"

And they all lived happily ever after!!!

**Just to clarify on the pumpkin carving story below...we used the good ol' $4 carving kit from Wal-Mart for the designs. I wish I were able to say that we free-handed those, but I would be lying!! The kits are well worth the $$, so be sure and try it for yourself next year!!