Bonnie and David Williams

What we've been up to...

2011-08-28T10:27:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been a while...like usual! Here are some photos to catch you up on what we've been up to. These first few David took but the rest are from my phone. They aren't the best quality...

Here we are at our friend, Bonnie's birthday party. Emery had a lot of fun playing with Bonnie's niece and nephew's toys.

Here's Emery with our friend, Carla. Carla was trying to get her to make her funny face...

This is Emery's newest trick! David has taught her to do this face. We will count to three and then she'll do it. It is adorable because she tries to do 1-2-3 with her fingers like her daddy.

This is probably our only family picture of the summer!
The birthday girl! Happy birthday Bonnie #1 - she's #1 and I'm #2 - we both work at Amarillo High together.
Here are a bunch of pictures from my phone...
Emery standing up in her highchair. She does what she wants...I give up!

We watched Maddie a few times this summer. Here they are playing dress up! I can't believe how big they are getting!
Emery loves apples now - and she only wants to eat them like a big girl. She insisted on wearing this hat and shoes. She looks like a cute, little old lady, huh?!

Feeding the ducks at the park! We did this several times this summer. She loves to try to quack like a duck. She has added that animal sound to her collection!

Her hair is long enough for piggies now! It took a while but she will actually let me put them in now and will leave them alone!

We bought her a big girl potty and will start potty training soon. For now, she is teaching all of her babies!

This summer we loved sitting on the front porch after dinner and enjoying a yummy popsicle!

Who needs a pool when Grandma and Papa have ginormous dog bowls?! Emery loves running around naked and playing in the water.

A couple of weeks ago, Emery had to be sedated for her hearing and vision tests. These are just part of her protocol. She has had her hearing tested twice before in Houston while she was undergoing treatment. The audiologist said everything looks great and she has no hearing loss! She will have her vision tested again when she has scans in January. This first vision test just serves as a base line because everyone has their own "normal" response time. It's called a VER - can't remember what it stands for but basically it records how long it takes for her brain to receive the message that her eyes detected light from these super cool goggles. Emery did great with the sedation as always, but it took 6 people to hold her down for her IV. She is not a fan.

Here's our last picture for today! I watched our friends' little girl Saylor not too long ago and Niki and Maddie came over to play too. Here are the girls having fun in the bath! Nothing better than cute little girls playing in the bath!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Weekend with Friends

2011-08-02T09:48:00.001-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, we took a little road trip to Santa Fe with two other couples. The girls took one car and the boys were in another. It was really nice to have some girl time. We talked about our kids - we all have girls close in age. We talked, we cried, and of course did lots of laughing. I'm sure the guys were pretty happy they were in their own vehicle.

We rented a great house close to the square. We did some shopping and lots of eating. I forgot how great it is to eat out! We don't do it much because our daughter is awesome in restaurants. Here are a few photos of our weekend.

Here we are with Blake and Jennifer and Matt and Niki.

The boys.
Us girls.
David and I - we never have pictures of ourselves these days!

Well, this was our first time to go away on a little trip without Emery. I never would have agreed to it during the school year when I feel like I don't see her enough, but after having her to myself all summer, I was okay with it. Actually, it was really nice! We had a great time with great friends! I look forward to doing it again!

Mommy and Me Dance Class

2011-08-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

This summer I decided to enroll Emery in a mommy and me dance class. My friend from work teaches the class and told me I should enroll Emery. The class is for 2-3 year olds so I didn't know how she would do since she was only 18 months when the class started. She did pretty well considering how busy she is! She had a lot of fun dancing to the music and stretching. I loved watching her stretch...little kids are so limber! Her favorite things we did in class were the itsy-bitsy spider, the choo-choo train, and running and leaping over mommy's legs. These photos are from our last class where the daddies were invited to watch.

Here are some of Emery stretching, doing knee bounces, and leaping (or stepping on) my legs.

In the left photo, we're supposed to be doing knee bounces and Emery decides to do jumps! She caught quite a bit of air! In the right photo we're doing toe rises, but Emery was doing her own thing...as usual!

The daddies were asked to do the last dance with the girls. Here's David swinging Emery in the air. Notice none of the other dads are doing this. Daddy likes to do his own thing as well...wonder where Emery gets it? At the end of each class, the girls always do a choo-choo train and Emery decided to lead it this time. I can't believe the teacher let her...it wasn't good! I love the one of them tooting their horns! Oh, and notice all of the little girls are wearing cute little ballet outfits...when I signed Emery up online, it said dress comfortably, ballet shoes not required. So, in the first few classes, all of the kids were dressed in regular clothes. By the end of the summer, they were all decked out - except for our child. Oh well!

At the end of the class, all of the girls were presented with certificates. Emery loved hers and crumpled it up pretty quickly. Then we took some pictures at the barre. The left picture is what she would have liked to have been doing the whole class, I'm afraid.

So proud of herself! We were proud of her too, especially since she was the youngest in the class. It was lots of fun and I look forward to doing it again.

Quick trip to Dallas

2011-07-16T13:10:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, we headed to Dallas to pick up a few things at Ikea and also do a couple of photo shoots with some friends who live there. It was a super quick trip but we got to visit a little bit with Sarah, Miles, Elle, and Beck. Here are some fun pictures of Elle and Emery rinsing off after playing in the sand box. They were having so much fun!

We blew up an air mattress for David and I and Emery just loved playing on it. Here are some fun pictures of us trying to make the bed! I love her face and crazy hair!

More photos coming soon...I have a ton to post from our 12 days in New Jersey!

Relay for Life

2011-06-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who supported our team! We had a wonderful time out at the Relay...got pretty dirty but we're used to it here in Amarillo. The event started out with a few people giving speeches...Emery was bored with that so she started handing out water to everyone around us. It was pretty adorable and resulted in Emery being completely soaked!

After all of the speeches were over and Emery had emptied the water trough, they asked all of the cancer survivors to take the first lap. We walked it with Emery.

The second lap was for survivors and caregivers and then the third lap was for all of the team members. Here are a few of our teammates, Kathy, James and Brad.

Here is the Drozell family. They had already formed the team "Papa and Jude" and we joined up with them. I have really enjoyed getting to know Stephanie and look forward to our families getting together again soon. I know Emery and James would have so much fun together.

After the opening ceremonies, we ate some dinner and hung out for a little bit. Here's Emery enjoying one of Stephanie's delicious cupcakes. Emery loved the frosting...you can't tell one bit though.
Then we had our little drawing for the photo session with David. Emery grabbed several names out at once and dropped them on the ground. So then she had to pick one of those!

And the winners are....
Gene and Glenda! I hope you enjoy your photo session with David! Emery decided that pulling names out of the cup was quite entertaining and she ended up drawing their name a few more times! It was meant to be! ;)

It was a lot of fun being out there with other people who have been affected by cancer in one way or another. I loved chatting with my team members and hearing their stories. I hope one of these days in my life time they will find a cure for this awful disease. I hope none of my grandchildren have to worry about hearing the words, "you have cancer." I was happy to be a part of the Relay for Life and supporting everything they do. They do so much for families going through treatment and of course the research that they fund. We will definitely start participating in the Relay every year from now on! And I forgot to mention that we got second place and our team captain, Stephanie raised the most money as an individual! We also got an award for being the best rookie team! Being as competitive as I am, I was pretty pumped!

Thanks again to all of you who supported our team!

RESULTS ARE IN!

2011-05-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

I emailed Dr. Thompson this weekend with a couple of minor questions we forgot to ask at our doctor's visit with him.

1) One more year of scans? Every six months?
2) Do we still have to do urine and blood checks every month here?

I can't believe we forgot to ask these things...we just get too busy talking and joking around with Dr. T to discuss the important things! ;)

Anyway, he emailed me back today and in the subject line he put, "EMERY IS PERFECT!" He's absolutley right! She is perfect in every way! Her scans still show no sign of cancer. We weren't a bit worried but it's still so nice to hear those words.

Dr. Thompson is going to email us our new schedule of scans so hopefully we'll know all of that info soon.

Thanks for all of the continued support and prayers for Emery. We are so thankful she continues to do so well!

Special Treatment

2011-05-20T13:27:00.001-07:00

We headed out Tuesday on our very own flight to Houston...this is definitely the way to travel. No security checks, no baggage claim, no lines! We just loaded up the plane and headed out!

Craig Brian is the father of one of David's students, Lissa, who graduated last year. She headed up the Emery's Army fundraiser last year, deigning and selling T-shirts for us. She is such a special girl with an incredible heart. Lissa is a Pre-Med student at UT and will be an amazing doctor one of these days. Anyway, we had dinner with the Brians over Christmas break while Lissa was in town and he offered to fly us to Houston. They are an amazing family!

The plane we got to fly on!

Loading up!

It's all for this special girl!

Our wonderful pilot!

Emery buckled in and ready to go!

Me and Vicky, Craig's wife. We had a great time riding together. We wore headsets the whole ride so we could talk to each other and listen to all of the pilot talk on the radio. It was really neat! Emery didn't have any headphones but the noise didn't seem to bother her one bit! She watched her DVD's, read magazines, and looked out the window. She even laughed when the flight got a little bit bumpy...mama got a little bit nauseous! I kept wondering when Emery was going to fall asleep since we left around her nap time. She didn't get tired until the last five minutes of the trip...seriously. I was a little worried about the landing but it was the smoothest landing I've ever experienced. Needless to say, Emery slept right through it.

Lauren picked us up and we ran some errands in Houston while Emery caught a little nap. One of our stops was at the Houston Polo Club where Lauren's company does some work. Emery got right up to see those horses! She loved the horses! She got in lots of 'neighs' and 'byes' while we were there. She would neigh at the horses and then if we got too close, she would wave and say 'bye' to them. It was very cute.

So, we don't have any pictures from our hospital visits, but those are boring anyway! We went in Wednesday morning for our appointment with Dr. Thompson. He was hilarious as always - I'm not sure how many times we've heard the same stories from this guy! He loves giving David a hard time and will tell stories about him to anyone who will listen. There was a young resident working with him so the poor guy had to listen to Dr. Thompson harass David a little. David's always a good sport though. Dr. Thompson is a little concerned about Emery's development...he said she's a little too lethargic, is lacking in the energy department, and is socially introverted. Obviously he's kidding. Emery is completely the opposite of all of those things! She did keep telling him 'bye' though! I think she hurt his feelings a little bit!

After our visit with him, we had to run down to diagnostic imaging to check in for her MRI. Luckily, they weren't running too behind so they got to us pretty quickly. Getting the IV is always the worst part of the day...thank goodness the nurses got it in place on the first try. Emery cheered up pretty quickly after that and pretty soon they sedated her and she was off to dreamland. David and I headed to Chipolte to get some lunch and relax for a little bit. Emery's MRI went great and we headed down to Nuclear Medicine for her MIBG injection. They gave Emery the injection and took her IV out. She was very happy about that.

We started a new tradition last time we were here for Emery's scans - stopping at McDonald's to get Emery a chocolate shake and french fries! We don't give her junk like that on a regular basis so don't worry! After not getting to eat all day, who wouldn't want some fries and a shake?! Mom and I would always reward ourselves with one after a long day at the clinic...Emery was too little then and didn't get to enjoy the tasty treat herself. Now she can! Anyway, she loved it but only ate about 1/4 of the fries and shake...therefore mommy had to finish it for her. I hate for food to go to waste.

Thursday, Emery was scheduled to be at the hospital at 10:00 for her CT scan and then her MIBG scan. She gets an hour to drink her apple juice with contrast before her scan. This used to be such an ordeal. I think the first couple of times she had her CT scan, we had to use a dropper to get her to drink it all. That took FOREVER! We've also used a straw - dip the straw into the juice, plug one end with your finger and then drop it into her mouth - yeah, I'm sure the nurses thought we were ridiculous. Anyway, thankfully, she will drink it now! Yay!

Emery did great with the CT scan. Luckily, it's super quick and she doesn't have to be sedated. Then we had to run down to Nuclear Medicine for her MIBG scan. They were about to give away our spot even though we were held up by her CT scan. I was not happy about that. We got there with time to spare and they quickly got her sedated and on the scanner. We met another family in the waiting room whose son is about to go through surgery and possibly chemo over the next few weeks. They live in Clovis, NM and the father is actually from Dumas! Small world. We exchanged stories for a few minutes and we got their Caringbridge page so that we can follow along with their son's progress. His name is Jack Sullivan if you want to keep him in your prayers. He was diagnosed with Ganglioneuroblastoma when he was 3 and now, two years later, it has come back. So sad. I hate to hear that.

After Emery woke up from her MIBG scan we headed to the park to play! Emery had a great time chasing birds and playing on the playground. We even found a splash park! Emery thought it was pretty fantastic.

LOVES birds!

So, I wasn't very smart. I thought, sure she can get wet, and then we'll just strip her down afterward...should have stripped and then put on the dry clothes afterward. Now I know.

Emery didn't mind the cold water one bit! She looks a little shocked here but she kept going back for more!

Soaked...

We didn't realize just how far we had walked through the park from our car to the actual playground. It was about a 10 minute walk with our fully naked little girl. We got a few looks. Oh well...not the first time! :)

We left the park just in time for 5:00 traffic. Awesome. It's so nice living in a small town. We drove back to Katy - actually a little past Katy - to meet up with Dan and Lauren. One of their friends is a Polo player and he was playing in a championship game at a ranch nearby. We had so much fun watching him play! The ranch was beautiful and the game was really exciting!

Emery wanting to check out the water.

LOVED the horses! I think everyone could hear her neighing as loud as she could at them!

The players in action! Pretty cool!

So they say everyone has a twin somewhere out there...meet Uma, Emery's long lost twin. Uma is two weeks older than Emery and is Marco's daughter. They had a lot of fun running around with each other and sharing Emery's sippy cup.

The Champions!

Visiting the tired horses after the big game. Emery made sure to tell them all 'bye-bye' and 'night-night.'

It was a fun night! Emery fell asleep on the way home and enjoyed getting to sleep in...so did I! Waking up to feed her at 5:00 am and 6:00 am the past two mornings was not fun! We had a great morning. Emery ate a big bowl of oatmeal and had part of a banana! She woke up with quite an appetite after two days of not eating much. We walked to the neighborhood park and played for a while...it was already really hot and sticky outside. Not used to that! David looked up some splash parks in town but couldn't find any public ones nearby. We called the YMCA and went there instead. David was a good daddy and got in the baby pool with Emery. They played and swam for a long time! They were both a little worn out afterward! I didn't get to swim because I didn't pack a swim suit...I didn't mind though because the water felt too cold for me anyway. I'm a wimp. I had lots of fun watching though!

So, now we're back at the house. Emery's napping and David is working on dinner. Fish Tacos! For some reason he likes to cook when we come to Houston...

We talked to our pilot, Craig and it looks like we'll head home tomorrow afternoon if the weather looks okay. If not, Sunday morning. We have had a great time so far and hate to leave our friends. It's always so good to spend time with them. I hope you all had a great week! I'll update more when we get the rest of Emery's results!

Mother's Day Weekend...I know this is a tad bit late.

2011-05-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of our weekend...sorry! I do have some videos that I will try to upload from my phone. I have to figure out how to do that first though...

Anyway, David and his buddies took their yearly "man trip" Mother's Day weekend instead of spending it with their mothers and wives! They had a great time canoeing and fishing while we were all taking care of our babies and doing our wifely duties like cleaning the house and doing all of the laundry. Just kidding - I went to Dallas instead of taking care of my disgusting house! :)

Rosanne and I drove to Dallas Friday afternoon to go visit Hannah and her two kids and Sarah, Miles, and their two kids. Emery played a little bit with Willow and Grady Friday night when we got in and then we headed to stay with Sarah and Miles. We had a quick but fun weekend at their house. Emery and Elle had so much fun playing together! I wish Emery got to see her cousins more often. We went to Target to get some things (a Target trip is always a necessity no matter where you are, right?) We almost lost Emery at Target because Sarah and I were trying to pick out a (very late) birthday present for Aidan and Emery decided to go back to the baby section to check out the latest styles. We were calling her name and of course we didn't hear a peep. Before either of us freaked out (literally, less than a minute) we found her. I think Sarah was close to freaking out but it was okay! Emery and I also went to Richardson to visit my good college friend Tracy who had just had her little girl that week. Emery and Tracy's two year old, Avery had a good time playing while Tracy and I got to catch up a little. I can't believe she's already on number two! It was so good to see her and her two little ladies. Sunday morning we all got up and packed a lunch to eat at the Dallas Arboretum. It was incredible. Everything was so green and colorful. We had a picnic lunch out in the grass where a lot of other families were doing the same. Emery didn't feel like eating (imagine that) and was way more interested in visiting everyone else's blanket! She was hard to keep up with! Then we let the Emery and Elle play in the water! There is a fountain that the kids could all run around in and get sprayed by the water. The girls absolutely loved it! I didn't know how Emery would react but she didn't seem bothered by getting sprayed at all. It made me super anxious though because there were a lot of kids running around and Emery was probably the smallest one. She did get tackled by Elle at one point, but got right back up and went for the water again! She loved it. The girls were soaked so we stripped them down and put them back in the strollers for the walk back to the car. We got a few strange looks but who cares?! We probably did look a little trashy but we'll never see them again!

Rosanne and I drove home and shortly after we arrived in Amarillo, the boys made it home too! That was a nice surprise because we weren't expecting them until late that night! Emery was so happy to see her daddy and so was I. Much to my surprise, David had shaved his beard into a mustache only. It was pretty awesome...wish I had a picture to show you. I guess he thought he needed a mustache for the river...

Well, that was our Mother's Day weekend! I will try to get the videos loaded...

Easter 2011

2011-04-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

This was Emery's second Easter but her first Easter that she really got to participate in. We went over to Matt and Niki's for a little egg hunt and a delicious lunch. Matt's mom, Niki's parents and David's parents came too. We had a lot of fun watching our girls play. They sure do love each other and we get the biggest kick out of watching them together. Here are some pictures of our afternoon...

Best friends for ever! We love our best friends Matt and Niki and hope our girls will feel the same way about each other! So far, we're pretty sure they do.

I love Saturdays

2011-04-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

I love weekends with my two favorite people! David was taking photos Saturday morning and this is what Emery and I were up to. As you can see, she's hard to keep up with!

Played for a little bit in the den...

Helped mom with some laundry.Emery 's not a huge fan of me putting away her clothes. She likes to empty the drawers just after I fill them up!

Here's all that's left in her pajama drawer...one pair of pj's and a random maraca!

Then we moved back to the den for some lunch. I have been bad lately and have been letting her watch "Wonder Pets." She loves it! As you can see she doesn't like the fact that I was blocking her view...

WAY to into this show!!! At least I got her mess cleaned up though!

We had a fun three day weekend! Emery and I watched a mama bird build a nest. She was fascinated! She loves birds and could watch them all day long. I even got her to say tree and nest! She is learning so many new words. I love it! We also played in the backyard and found a lady bug. It crawled on our hands for a long time and Emery was very gentle with it.

The weekend passed by way too quickly. I am so ready to do these things every day this summer. It can't come soon enough!

David took some pictures of Emery and Maddie hunting for eggs this morning. I'll hopefully get around to posting those sometime this week! Of course, he won't let me just post them the way they are - he must edit them... :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Dear Cancer

2011-04-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine posted a letter to cancer a couple days ago. Well, I say she's a friend even though we haven't met yet - I know we will be dear friends as our babies both have been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. It will be so nice to have another mama to talk to about what our babies are experiencing. I have already enjoyed getting to encourage her as she and her family are just starting their journey. Emery's story is precious to us and it makes us so happy getting to share it with others.

So, anyway, here's my letter to cancer and a few pictures to show just how far our little miracle has come. Go here to write your own letter to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Dear Cancer,
You tried to take by baby girl when she was only a couple months old. She was so tiny, so fragile. You made my baby roll over for the first time in a hospital. You made my baby girl need occupational therapy. And worst of all, you made my baby girl go through chemotherapy, blood/platelet transfusions, hundreds of needle sticks, and scans I wish I didn't know about. You made our baby girl endure things in her first few months of life that I wouldn't wish on anyone. You scared us to death. Unfortunately for you, our daughter is a fighter. She made it through surgery and four rounds of chemo and handled it all beautifully. She is now a precious 16 month old little girl - perfect in every way. You lost. We won. Our God won. He is her healer, her protector and you will never reside in her perfect body again. Remember that.

Bonnie

Look at how far Emery has come... here she is the day after we arrived in Houston after her tumor biopsy surgery.

Daddy reading to Emery - Psalm 91 - "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."

Here's Emery and the best oncologist ever, Dr. Thompson. This was at her check-up this summer in Houston.
As you can see, cancer has not slowed her down. She is all over the place - keeping us plenty busy.

We love you little girl...

Maybe it was a fluke!

2011-04-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

And she hasn't done it since...wish we had gotten it on video!

Gotta brag a little...

2011-04-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

This may be totally normal for her age...if so, don't burst my bubble! Tonight David and I were giving Emery a bath and she was playing with her bath toys as always. We started quizzing her to see which animals she knows and which ones she doesn't. She correctly identified (on her first try, might I add) penguin, shark, dolphin, pig, duck, and hermit crab! The only one she didn't know was the whale! Now, she can't say these words but she sure does know which ones we were asking her to hand us. She has been able to give me the duck and pig for a long time now but we hadn't tried any of the others. We were quite impressed with our little Emery! Just had to brag a little! I hope you're all having a good night!

Sweet Cousins

2011-04-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

Sarah, Miles, Elle and Beck came to visit the end of February and I never posted any pictures from their visit. It was so much fun having them here for the weekend. It is a long drive from Dallas, so we were very happy they made the trip all the way here to see us.

Emery and Elle played all weekend long! They played at the park, played dress-up, and had lots of fun in the bath. I hate that they don't get to see each other very often but I know when we all get together again they will pick up right where they left off.

Beck was a sweetheart. Such a good baby! I look forward to having an easy second child as well! Did you hear that, Lord?! :) He was absolutely adorable. It was so good to see him and hold him again!

David had some fun taking pictures of the girls in their semi-matching outfits. We thought they had the same shirts, but turns out they were a little bit different. They still looked cute though!

Elle and Emery thought it was the most hilarious thing let the dogs lick their hands through the gate! They were giggling so hard. It was precious.

I think we were cheering for Emery here because she didn't want to smile! She joined right in!

Elle was so sweet with Emery. I loved hearing her say Emery's name. Such a sweet voice...

Elle loved giving Emery hugs...and I think we were telling her to make sure Emery didn't fall off the chair!
Fun at the park!
Aunt Sarah swinging with Emery.
Elle loving the slide! She is so much fun!

We had a fun, relaxing weekend. I wish we could do it more often. It's so hard when family is so far away. We miss our sisters and sweet nieces and nephews! Emery says everyone should move to Amarillo and we could do this all the time!!

Spring is here!

2011-04-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

We are loving this weather! Emery wants to be outside most of the time and I don't blame her. I can already tell this is going to be a fun summer! I cannot wait for school to be out so I can spend every day with my little girl.

We have started walking down to our neighborhood park as often as we can. Emery loves the slides and is absolutely fearless...this scares us quite a bit! Here are some pictures of her going down all by herself. She stayed on her bottom in these pictures but she has stained up quite a few shirts since then going down on her tummy!

I hope you all are enjoying the nice weather as much as we are!

Picture update!

2011-04-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures to make up for the last pictureless post!

This photo is actually quite old and I cannot believe I never posted it! It is absolutely priceless! We thought about using it as our Christmas card this year, but unfortunately changed our minds.

Here's our sweet girl! Bath time is the best!

Here's Emery working on her "I can do it myself" skills. She loves being independent and I LOVE cleaning up her independent messes!

I'm not sure how it ended up in her hair but nothing surprises me anymore!

Here are Emery and Maddie one night at our house after a bath. We get together with Matt and Niki at least once a week. The girls absolutely love each other.

It looks like Maddie is trying to talk Emery into doing something naughty right here...

Goodnight (or nigh-nigh, as Emery says) kisses! Niki and I were talking the other night about how awkward she felt one time when we were in Dallas and Sarah was having Elle give kisses to everyone. Now we are the moms who have our girls give everyone goodnight kisses. They are quite good at it now and Maddie usually wants to go back around for seconds! They are such sweet girls!

We hung out at Matt and Niki's last night and Emery for the first time was a little too rough with Maddie. Maddie recently got a fun little red car and they were taking turns riding in and pushing each other. Maddie apparently has been lifting weights during the week because she could push Emery around all day long. Emery on the other hand was not a huge fan of pushing Maddie. In fact, any time Madeline got in the car, Emery tried her best to pull her out. It was not good. Emery was grabbing her clothes, her head, anything she could get her hands on. I had to get onto her several times for being so ugly to her BFF. I am not looking forward to the "mine, mine, mine" stage. We got them in the bathtub though and it was much better. Emery has recently started dumping cups full of water on her head in the bathtub and decided to try it out on Madeline. Luckily Maddie is such a good sport, because we thought it was hilarious and let it go on probably a little longer than we should have. Emery has also become obsessed with soap and shampoo so she then proceeded to wash Madeline's hair for her. It was quite comical. I wish we had gotten it on video!

Well, I need to find the pictures from February when Sarah, Miles, Elle, and Beck came to visit. Maybe I'll get those posted while Emery is still asleep!

So behind...

2011-03-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry for no photos in this post...I will try to get David to export some from his editing program. I need to have him show me how.

What's been going on lately...let's see.

Emery is now a week away from being 16 months. She is so much fun! I love how she is so interested in everything around her and loves to be around people. She is super social and very flirty! She says "hi" and "hey" in the sweetest little voice and tilts her head to the side while she says it. It's pretty adorable! She is a climber! Very much into everything! I have to constantly watch her to make sure she's not about to jump off of something! She loves hanging out with her BFF, Maddie. They fight over toys but also love to give each other hugs and kisses. I'm pretty sure bath time is still their favorite time together. Emery loves reading now and brings us books constantly. She will sit in our laps and look at books as long as we'll let her. We have to put a limit on how many we'll read at bed time. She doesn't ever want to put them down! She can point out certain animals and will make the sounds that they make. She can bark like a puppy, roar like a lion, buzz like a bee, make monkey noises, and hoo like an owl. She hasn't quite mastered meowing or quacking...

She is saying several words. She's not great at finishing her words but we know what she is saying.
Mama, Dada, more (and she signs this), out, up, ball, Jake (you can't hear the J though), night night, and no

Emery is still a picky eater! She has definitely come a long way and is getting better about trying new foods. I don't have to force her nearly as much as I used to. It's still frustrating but I am trying to be thankful for the foods she will eat! Her favorites right now are Macaroni and Cheese, grapes, peaches, cheese, bread, cheddar bunnies. She also LOVES her milk. We are still giving her milk in a bottle...I know she's old enough to be strictly using a sippy cup but we haven't quite made that transition yet!

Emery is still such a good sleeper. We are on Spring Break right now and she has been letting mommy and daddy sleep in until 8:00 or 9:00 every morning. We have woken up to the sound of her playing in her crib with her babies. She is such a sweet girl! I love hearing her talking and playing with her babies.

We have been going to the park every day and she has shown no fear! She will run up to all of the other kids and try to play right along side them. She will go down the slides by herself and loves every minute of it. In fact, she has been going down on her tummy! It's hilarious!

We just celebrated her year anniversary of being done with chemo! Her last chemo treatment was last March 12th and 13th. I cannot believe a year has already gone by. She has hit all of her milestones on time or even early and we couldn't be happier with how well she has bounced back. What fears you can have when the doctors go through all of the side effects that chemo can have on a person, much less a 7 week old baby! We thank God we have seen no signs of any damage done to our precious girl. She is still little, but she's in the 10th percentile now for weight and still in the 50th percentile for height! She's bigger than I was at her age so we're not worried about any of that.

David's photography business is taking off. He has always loved taking pictures and has taken our friends' pictures off and on for a few years. He just recently started up a website and has shot two weddings. He is loving it! He is also doing baby pictures, graduation pictures, and family pictures. I have been so impressed by how much he is learning with every shoot and think he is doing an incredible job! Now he's telling me I need to learn how to use his cameras so that I can be his second shooter! Scary! It will be fun though!

I guess that's about it for now. We have a few more days off for Spring Break and then it's back to work! I am so thankful to have this time to spend with David and Emery. I wish everyone could have a Spring Break!

Snow Day!!

2011-02-15T20:31:00.000-08:00

I just realized when I was doing a new post that I had never finished this one! I think the uploader was messing up on me and I had given up. Now, I've figured out how to resize David's photos so that they don't take all day to upload!

Here are the pictures from our super fun Snow Day! We were happy to have a day off of work to play with our little snow bunny! David got this Patagonia vest for Emery when I was still pregnant. He loves for her to wear it and was thrilled that she got the chance to wear it this day.
Here she is all bundled up and ready for her first time to get to play in the snow!

David couldn't stand for her not to have a sled to play in, so he gathered up some stuff we had in the garage and made Emery her very own make-shift sled! He was very proud of himself!

Enjoying being pulled by Daddy. He got quite the workout that morning!

All bundled up!
Trying to walk in the deep snow!
Not a huge fan.
All in all, it was a fun day! We loved snuggling up and staying warm inside!

She loves her daddy. They have the sweetest relationship.

Christmas and 13 Months old!

2011-01-01T20:30:00.001-08:00

Well, we never got around to taking Christmas pictures and putting together a card. Emery was sick for a couple of weeks and then I got sick. We just didn't get it done! Here are a few pictures that David took of Emery one afternoon when he took pictures for some of our friends. She didn't want to cooperate and just ran around the whole time! There was just too much to see and do! She's a very curious (and nosey) little girl...kinda like her mama. She is very interested in everything and everyone around her. I love that about her cute little personality.

Niki and I wanted to get some pictures of the girls with Santa. Neither of them were too fond of him. Here are some funny pictures to enjoy!

Emery wouldn't sit in Santa's lap so I had to hold her. It's hard to see in these pictures but she has an adorable Santa shirt on!

She was letting Santa have it here! Too funny!

And this one is priceless!

After their traumatizing Santa experience, Santa's little elf gave the girls some candy canes and that made everything all better. :)

We had a wonderful Christmas. Lots of family, lots of gifts, lots of laughs. I have more pictures I need to post from our Christmas in Abilene and here in Amarillo, but this will have to do for now!

Oh, Emery is 13 months old now! Here is what she has been up to:

Saying - "Uh oh" all the time! So cute!
Barks when she hears the dogs barking. It is adorable!
"Heeeeey!" has been saying this for a while but it's still just as cute!
She has said a few words once or twice but not consistently - boot, two, night night

Walking all over the place! Her left leg seems a little weaker (this is due to the Horner's syndrome) but we had her evaluated by a therapist and she's not worried. She thinks Emery will get stronger the longer she is walking.

She loves playing with her babies. She will push them in their stroller, give them bottles, and pat them on the back. It's precious.

She got a kitchen for Christmas and has fun playing with her real stainless steel pots and pans her Aunt Hannah and Uncle Josh got her. She also likes to talk on the phone while cooking. Yes, her kitchen came with a phone. Very realistic!

She also got a soccer ball from Gigi and Pa for Christmas and she loves kicking it around the house and the backyard when the wind isn't blowing like crazy.

She got a wagon from Popi and Grandma for her birthday and that is also one of her new favorite things to do. She loves going for rides in it in the driveway (if I'm being super lazy) or down the street.

She has gotten three teeth! FINALLY! They all came in at the same time so that was a treat...we think she has more coming in again. Not fun!

She has a thing for dog beds. When we are over at Matt and Niki's house, she will disappear sometimes and we will almost always find her on Jerry's bed in Matt and Niki's bedroom. Hilarious. She thinks it is so funny when we find her there. The other day we were at Bo and Rosanne's house and she did the same thing, except this time it was Rowdy's dog bed. She had put Poo Bear in the bed too. We constantly have to keep her off of our dogs' beds too. It totally grosses me out!

Emery is finally eating better. She still has her favorites - fruit, yogurt, and bread. She is getting a little bit better about trying other foods though. Hopefully, she will get less and less picky as she gets older.

Well, this has gone on long enough! Emery is so much fun and I have loved every minute of our two weeks together. Too bad I have to go back to work on Monday. Thank goodness for school holidays! I sure did need it! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. We are so thankful for how well our baby girl is doing and we look forward to what 2011 has in store for us.

One more update...we head back to Houston January 11th. We haven't been since July so we are really excited to see Emery's doctor. Emery will be having her third round of scans since her surgery in April. Her last scans showed no signs of cancer so we're looking forward to more good news this month.

New Nephew!

2010-11-26T21:50:00.000-08:00

Our nephew, Robert Beck Durham was born on Emery's birthday! What fun it will be for these sweet cousins to share a birthday! I look forward to many birthday parties and Thanksgivings together! We have so much to be thankful for!

Congratulations Sarah, Miles, and Elle. Beck is absolutely adorable and I can't wait to meet him in a couple of weeks!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

2010-11-26T20:55:00.000-08:00

Emery turned one year old on November 23rd. I can't believe my baby girl is one year old already! This year has flown by. I'm not sure where the time has gone...it better slow down though because I couldn't handle it if every year went by this quickly.

We had a family birthday party for Emery at Bo and Rosanne's house the weekend before her birthday. It had been a long time since most of us had been together. Hannah, Willow, and Grady were in town from Dallas and Tricia, Steven, Isaac, and Hannah were here from Monroe. It was so fun having all of them there to help us celebrate Emery's birthday. So much to celebrate - so many prayers answered this year. What a little fighter we have. I am so proud to be Emery's mama.

Here are the pictures from her first birthday party.

She wasn't too interested in eating the cupcake. She's not really interested in food period. I thought sweets would be different, but she didn't really care for it!

Here she is opening gifts from all of us. She was really excited when she got this baby doll. She has a lot of babies at Grandma's house but needed some for home. She loves holding them, patting their backs and giving them bottles. So sweet!

Her first puzzle! I absolutely loved puzzles growing up. In fact, I would tell my parents I was going to go "puzzle up" any time I was going to work on a puzzle. They should have known I'd be a math nerd...

Emery LOVES this book from her great Aunt Mary. It makes animal sounds and has pop-ups. Hopefully the pop-ups will survive more than a month...

The next day, we had a birthday party with my girlfriends and their little ones. I cannot believe we didn't get a picture of all of the kids together! Sorry!

Here she is walking around the house with her pretty dress up purse. I believe she was carrying around a bath toy in it!
Precious.
Talking to daddy.
Posing for daddy.
Her bumble bee cupcakes that I made for my special girl!

Happy Birthday Emery!
Eating her cupcake!

Emery and her BFF, Maddie. Emery loves Matt. She smiles at him any time he's around!

Our happy little family. I can't believe it was one short year ago that Emery changed our lives forever. I love her more than I ever imagined I could. I look forward to many more birthdays and the fun memories along the way!

Here's what our girl is doing at one year:

Walking! - started at 11 months
Still saying dada, mama (well, nana some of the time), hi, hey, that
Trying to say - "I love you" , Josie
Stacking blocks and rings
Plays with her tea party set
Loves her babies and loving on them
Loves to dance to music
Loves her baths, will actually lay down in the water now - used to hate it!
Still loves to be rocked to sleep and I love every minute of it!
I'm mixing whole milk in with her formula now to make the switch - so far she hasn't noticed!
She loves cheese, yogurt, and fruit.
She usually will eat pasta but not much of anything else...not sure how I'm going to get her to eat when she's off formula completely.
Not much of a juice drinker, which is okay with me!

Little girl weighed 17 lbs 12 oz at her 1 year appointment - 5th percentile but our dr. is not worried. Neither am I as she is a pound heavier than I was at her age.
She is in the 50th percentile for height though!

We have had two rounds of scans now since her surgery last April. So far there is no sign of cancer in her little body! We are so thankful!

We will go back to Houston in January to see her oncologist there and have her third round of scans. I am looking forward to seeing Dr. Thompson and Dan and Lauren! It will be fun minus the fact that we have to be at the hospital part of the time!

My Little Bumble Bee

2010-11-26T20:36:00.000-08:00

Emery was a bumble bee for Halloween this year. She looked so cute and had a good time posing for daddy. Here are some pictures from her first Halloween!

I love these pictures of her! David captured her personality perfectly!

Emery 11 months old!

2010-10-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

Emery is now 11 months old and is doing so much! She is finished with occupational therapy now! She had only been going once a month but this Monday was her last session. We are sad to not see Jennifer anymore but we'll be sure to go visit her from time to time. David is sad about not getting to play with all of the fun toys they have there!

Well, Emery decided to walk this weekend! She took a couple of steps and has been taking more each day. David counted 16 steps in a row today! She's going to be walking all over the place in no time!

Here is a video of her playing. Please ignore the TV show in the background...I think David was watching Dexter. It's very much an age appropriate show for Emery. ;)

10 Months Old!

2010-10-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby girl is 10 months old - well, almost 11 months now! She is so much fun and is growing up more and more every day. Here are the latest pictures David took of her. We were in Abilene last weekend so we took some chairs out to the old fort by my dad's house for some photos. She was very cooperative as always, and I think David got some great pictures!

What Emery is doing at 10 months -

Still crawling and walking holding on to things.
Eating a little bit more table food. So far she has liked Chicken Spaghetti and Lasagna. She also likes bites of cheese, puffs (her favorite), strawberries, peaches, and apples. She's finally starting to eat bananas as well. Feeding her can be very frustrating but hopefully she'll start liking food more.
Still saying Dada and daddy, saying mama again, hi, trying to say dog. She talks all the time and is always making noises. She is so funny. Her latest thing is pulling the bottle out of her mouth and blowing raspberries. She thinks its hilarious!
Loves her baths - but she has for a long time now.
Can stack her plastic rings! Rosanne also has some wooden rings, squares, and triangles that she stacks over at her house. She puts one on and then looks at you to clap and cheer. She's a ham.
She claps her hands and cheers for herself all the time.
She is waving hi and bye now.
She gives the best kisses.
She has become very much a daddy's girl lately. Any time David is around, she wants him instead of me.

Emery puts a smile on our faces every time we see her and we couldn't be more thankful for our precious 10 month old baby girl!

Emery's 9 month Pictures

2010-10-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

As usual, I'm terribly behind. Here are the pictures from Emery's dedication at church and her nine month pictures. I have not done a very good job of writing down what Emery is doing each month. I'm trying to remember what all she was doing at 9 months old! It doesn't seem like much has changed over the past couple of months but I'm sure there are many things to celebrate! I'll try to remember some!

It was so nice to finally dedicate Emery at church. Our church dedicates babies once a month and we wanted to dedicate Emery at the same time as her best friend Madeline so it took us a while to find a weekend where we both could do it. There were so many babies dedicated that morning. It was so fun seeing all of the babies and their parents, many of whom we knew. What a special way to spend our Sunday morning celebrating the gifts God has given to us!

We took some pictures after church in her cute little dress and shoes. She is standing up so well now! I can't wait for her to walk! I know everyone keeps telling me that I will not like it, but I am tired of carrying her everywhere!

This was at the church. We couldn't stay in the sanctuary for much of the service. She just gets a little too loud yelling and playing! So we hung out with one of our friends and his little girl during the service.

Nine Months old -
Still in the 10th percentile for weight and 50th for height.
We are attempting to give her table food now - not a fan! She hates it and so do I!
Crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything, and walking holding on to furniture.
She says Nana (she quit saying mama shortly after she started saying it), Dada, Daddy, and hi.
She still loves the dogs although they don't really think her pulling and tugging on their fur is nearly as cute anymore. Emery will pull up on Josie and Josie will walk away making Emery fall down. Emery does not appreciate it very much but keeps doing it!
Emery loves looking out our front window. She will bang on the window and yell like she has something really important to say to everyone outside. It's pretty adorable.

I think that's about it! Now, I need to post her 10 month pictures!

Houston Trip - First Round of Scans

2010-08-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally am posting about our trip to Houston which was the end of July. I guess I'm not too terribly behind! We had to go to Houston for Emery's first round of scans since she finished chemo in March. We were excited to see Dr. Thompson again and a tiny bit nervous about her scans, not so much about the results but everything she has to go through when the scans take place. We took our time getting to Houston because we didn't want to put ourselves or Emery through the entire drive in one day. We stopped and stayed the night with Sarah and Miles in Dallas which is always fun. One night is never enough! We went on to Houston the next morning looking forward to seeing our Houston roomies, Dan and Lauren. They both turned 30 this summer so we had some wonderful birthday dinners with them! For some reason David cooks a lot more when we are in Houston...

We had to be at the hospital bright and early Wednesday morning for Emery's MRI. Thankfully, my child doesn't like to eat so she really didn't mind going all morning without eating. She was super busy as always so we had to find creative ways of keeping her entertained for a couple of hours while we waited. They have to sedate her for the MRI so it's always hard handing her off to the nurses and watching her fall to sleep on the table. They take good care of her and are always so sweet to her in the recovery room. Thankfully, the scan didn't take too long and we got to see her about two hours later. After her MRI, we had to go down to Nuclear Medicine where they injected her with a chemical that is absorbed by her type of cancer cells. After the injection we were done for the day and headed back to Dan and Lauren's. The next day, we didn't have to go to the hospital as early which was nice. We had to get Emery to drink some Pedilite with the contrast in it for her CT scan. She didn't want to drink it from a bottle so we had to drop it into her mouth with a straw. I'm sure the nurses were pretty amused with our 8 month old who wouldn't take a bottle. Once she had taken it all, we thought they were going to sedate her for the CT scan but they ended up not having to. Good thing we starved her all morning. However, she did have to be sedated a little bit later for her MIBG scan which is what she got the injection for the previous day. This was a much longer day for us and Emery. She was a trooper though and toughed it out! On our way home that day, Dr. Thompson called and insisted that we stop by Craig Waibel's (the soccer player) house. We felt really uncomfortable doing it but knew that Dr. Thompson would be upset with us if we didn't! He is so funny about David and Craig being friends! So, we complied and stopped by Craig's house. He and his wife were super nice and Jocelyn and Emery got to meet. They just stared and smiled at each other the whole time. We had a good visit and headed back to Katy.

We had to go back to the hospital AGAIN the next day to see Dr. Thompson at the clinic. It was strange being back but it was wonderful to know that we were just there for a check up and not treatment! We ran into Dr. Javi while we were there. He was the fellow who worked with Dr. Thompson when Emery was first admitted. He couldn't believe how big she has gotten and all of the hair she has now. It was great seeing him even if it was only for a few minutes. Dr. Thompson needed a urine sample so we had to get Emery started on that right away when we arrived. This might be too much info but it was pretty funny. We have had to do this in the past and have never been very successful. This time was no exception! They give you these little plastic bags with adhesive on them that you have to stick over the entire genitalia. Sorry, but that's the best I can figure out how to describe it! Anyway, Emery moves a lot these days and we were having a hard time getting a sample! So, we were changing the bag out in the little exam room we were in and she peed all over the exam table! We ended up having to wait almost another hour after we had met with Dr. Thompson before we were able to get her to use the rest room again. I finally took her diaper off and blew on her tummy a few times and she finally went! It was pretty funny! Back to Dr. Thompson, it was great seeing him as always. He was full of laughs and jokes for David. He was so impressed with Emery and gave her nothing but compliments. The scans were all clear! She still has a few spots in her liver but he is not worried about them at all. He said they would have never even treated her had she only had cancer in her liver. It will go away on its own because of the nature of Neuroblastoma. He also told us she has a less than 5% chance of the cancer coming back but he doesn't anticipate that happening at all. She is perfect in every way and he couldn't be happier. We just love him so much. God couldn't have given us a more perfect doctor for Emery. He knows just the right things to tell us and is always so encouraging.

Craig and his little girl, Jocelyn.

The daddies and their girls.

Emery and the scale having a hard time getting an accurate weight!

Having fun waiting for Dr. Thompson!

She's ready to see him!

Staying busy in the exam room.

Yay! It's Dr. Thompson!

This is why we love him!

Emery is obsessed with getting people's mouths...

I love this one. Dr. Thompson is definitely one of a kind. He treats every patient like they are his only patient. He will answer every single question we ask and spend as much time talking to us as we need. I don't know how he gets to all of his patients every day but I'm pretty sure none of them mind waiting for him.

So, we had a wonderful visit with Dan and Lauren (unfortunately we don't have any pictures of them...) as well as Dr. Thompson. Emery is technically in remission now and we will continue with scans every three months for the rest of this year and then just twice next year.

Thanks for all of the continued prayers for our baby girl. She is truly amazing. She blows me away every day with all of the new things she is doing. She is definitely a determined little stinker!

7 month Pictures - Better late than never, right?!

2010-07-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

Here are Emery's 7 month pictures - a little late but oh well! She is so much fun these days and keeps me busy all day long. I love this special time that I have with her and know that I will miss it so much when school starts in August. It is so much fun watching her explore and learn new things every day. She is so interested in everything going on around her and just soaks it all in. She is a social butterfly like her daddy and loves being around lots of people. Here are some pictures of her playing in her room.

Here are some things that Emery is doing right now:

Sitting up by herself - been doing that since about 6 months
Army crawling - thank goodness she has not mastered crawling on her hands and knees yet!
Pulling up on everything - time to baby proof our house!
Eating lots of things now - most veggies and fruits, not a fan of chicken
Favorite foods - carrots, sweet potatoes, mangos
Loves going for rides in her stroller and to feed the ducks
Sleeping through the night - thank you Jesus!
Taking good naps during the day!

We love this feisty little girl with everything we have and are so thankful she's ours!

Best Friends

2010-07-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

David took some pictures of Matt, Niki, and Madeline in May and we decided to take a few of the girls too. We happened to have matching dresses so it was fun getting some cute shots of them together. We know they are going to love growing up together and will be the best of friends!

Emery sitting up like a big girl. She was about 5 and a half months here.

Maddie and Emery - telling lots of secrets already!

My heart is overflowing with love for this little girl.

Catching up...

2010-06-16T14:13:00.001-07:00

I am trying to get caught up on all of the posts I need to do. I tried to get a few done yesterday but something was up with the photo uploader. Hopefully I'll get some more done tomorrow or maybe tonight. Anyway, I realized it is a little confusing that my last post says "5 Months" when Emery is really almost 7 months old now! I am just going back and posting things that I have missed over the past couple of months! Hopefully, I'll have them all done here in a few days!

Bald is Beautiful II - Fundraiser in Houston

2010-06-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

The end of May we took a trip to Houston with our best friends Matt and Niki and their little girl Madeline. We had an awesome time catching up with Dan and Lauren as well as Sarah and Miles, Susan, Dad and Marsha, and Doug and Cher. They call came to Houston for the Bald is Beautiful II fundraiser for the Children's Cancer Center. Craig Waibel with the Houston Dynamo started this fundraiser last year to raise awareness for children's cancer. We met Craig at the cancer clinic about a month after we arrived in Houston. He volunteers up at the hospital and is one of Dr. Thompson's good friends. He has such a great heart and does a lot to make the kids at the hospital feel special and loved. He keeps his head shaved and is often asked to talk to young cancer patients who are concerned about losing all of their hair. Craig and his wife have a little girl who is a couple months younger than Emery so he and David got to share lots of new dad stories with each other. They are pretty funny together. Craig and Dr. Thompson tried their hardest to convince David to shave his head in Emery's honor but David was determined to keep that full head of hair! Maybe next year...

Here are some pictures of our trip. I know this is old but I am trying to get caught up. Emery is 6 months old in these pictures and you can see she's got eye brows and eye lashes now and has the most adorable fuzz on her head!

Attacking Dan's nose! So funny!
Madeline hanging out in the swing - looks like she having a great time!

David and Dan taking a break from their washers game to pose for the camera.
Matt and Madeline at the Houston Dynamo game.

Dynamo game
Maddie was a sleepy girl!

Miles and Matt
Susan looking so pretty!

Marsha, Cher (who is now officially done with her cancer treatment!!), Dad and Emery

The whole gang before the game.

Dr. Thompson after he got his head shaved.

Niki, Matt, and Maddie
Lauren and Dan, the best hosts ever!

Matt and Maddie - if you've seen the Hangover, you'll think this is funny...

Doug and Cher who were in town for one of Cher's radiation treatments. Marsha and Dad made the drive and brought Susan with them. It was great to see all of them again.

Lauren and Emery playing at the house.

We had a wonderful weekend with our friends and family. It feels like Houston is our home away from home now and we look forward to going back the end of July!

5 months old and Cancer Free!

2010-06-15T09:41:00.001-07:00

Emery got to spend her 5 months birthday in her own home! Besides the one week we had at home before going back to Houston for surgery, Emery and I had been gone for three months! It seems crazy to me now to think about being out of your own home for that long. David and I have loved being home together and enjoy the fun times we have with Emery. She keeps us busy but we're loving every minute of it!

Here are Emery's 5 month pictures!

Emery's Surgery - this is really late, I know.

2010-06-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

So I am really behind on posting and can't ever seem to find the time to do it! Emery is super busy these days and I can only get so much done during her naps! Laundry and cleaning up the house tend to take up most of that time. Today I have been vegging out on the couch catching up on posting photos to Facebook and watching a little So You Think You Can Dance that I have recorded! This is so much better than working on the house!

Here are photos of Emery's surgery back in April. She had her tumor removed Monday, April 19th and everything went really well. Her surgeon was able to remove most of the tumor and he said what was left behind looked dead from the chemo treatments. Thankfully, with Neuroblastoma removing 95% of the tumor is as good as 100% because the remaining cancer cells will go away on their own. They can't survive without the rest of the mass. Emery had a chest tube in for a few days and was hooked up to all of the monitors during that time. She was pretty uncomfortable for the first 24 hours but seemed to feel much better after that. She is such a trooper and remained pretty pleasant throughout her recovery. We had to give her a little morphine the first night after surgery because she kept waking up and seemed like she was in quite a bit of pain. It was not fun. I had a hard time picking her up to feed her without aggravating her side where the chest tube was. I hated that. Thankfully, her chest tube came out Wednesday morning and she was moving around and playing soon after. They took off all the monitors at that time as well. It's so much easier to hold her and play with her without all of the wires! We were discharged the next afternoon and flew home the next day. We were so worried about surgery and how it was going to affect Emery, but once again she showed us how strong she is and she breezed through it like a little champ! We are so proud of our little girl and the strength she has.

Here we are waiting to meet with our surgeon and anesthesiologist.

Entertaining Emery to keep her mind off of the fact that she hadn't eaten in 6 hours!

Are you kidding me?! They want me to wear these things? How embarrassing! :)

Baby girl all ready for surgery!

Emery Chain Comes Down

2010-05-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't finished doing updates since Emery's surgery but I just had to post these pictures! I will get everything updated soon though.

The Emery Chain came down last week so David got some really cute pictures of Emery sitting in the middle of all of the love links. If you remember, the student council at our school sold paper links for $1 each. Students could write their name and a message to us and Emery on the link if they wanted to. The chain hung in the hallways of our school for an entire semester without being touched! For those of you who have been in a high school lately, things hanging on the walls don't last very long in the hallways. I was so impressed that our students were respectful enough to not touch the Emery Chain. It is such a sweet representation of how sweet and thoughtful our students are. Several schools in town and from surrounding towns sent their own love links to add to ours as well. The support has been incredible to say the least.

The beginning...

Emery in her pile of love links sporting her black and gold!

Emery in the pile of paper links. If you notice the different colors, the blue and white section is from Palo Duro High School. There is another section that is orange and black from Dumas. Another section from Richard Milborn and the mixed colors are from our school. I hope you can tell how huge this pile is. David walked through the hallways videoing the chain before they took it down. I'll have to get him to post it as well so that you can get the full effect. It was so cool to see it in the halls every day. What an incredible reminder of how compassionate and giving our students are.

Short Visit in Dallas and Our Week at Home

2010-04-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

After we talked to our surgeon and they scheduled surgery for April 21st, we got to go home for a little over a week. Emery and I stopped in Dallas to stay with my sister and her family and David drove down with his mom. We stayed a couple of nights in Dallas and then David and I drove our baby girl home for the first time in over three months. It was so good to go home even if it was just for a week! Emery was great in the car - slept for a few hours and then was happy to sit and play in her car seat. We were so thankful she didn't mind the long drive from Dallas to Amarillo!

Here is sweet Elle giving Emery kisses. It was hilarious trying to get a picture of these two. Elle was very patient while Emery was moving all over the place! We tried to get one of Elle holding Emery but none of them really came out.

Emery tasting Elle's baby doll!

Emery not really wanting to be held by Aunt Sarah! I thought her face was pretty priceless here!

Emery on her way home for the first time in over three months! Such a good traveler!

Emery's new obsession is playing with her feet. Here she is in her room grabbing her feet and growling! She's a funny girl!

Niki and Maddie came over to play! Emery and Maddie had so much fun playing on the floor together. There was lots of hand holding and staring going on. Niki and I just loved watching our girls together. They're sure to be bff's real soon!

Serious girls.

We had a little get together over at Niki's house for me and Emery. It was so good to see my girlfriends and their babies. We look forward to lots more play time this summer! In the pictures is Hilary and Channing, Jennifer and Saylor, Me and Emery, Niki and Madeline.

Lindsay missed the first picture, but here she is holding Emery and I have her little boy, Gray. Lindsay just had her second baby yesterday morning! We now have seven little girls in our group of friends and one more on the way! We can't wait for all of the slumber parties we are going to have with all these girls!

We had a birthday dinner for me and David over at Bo and Rosanne's while we were home. It was so good to see all of the family who by the way were all wearing Emery's Army t-shirts. I wish we would have gotten a picture of them all. Here's David's grandma Joan holding Emery. Emery had a good time seeing all of her Amarillo and Pampa relatives that she hadn't seen in so long. It was a wonderful night, but she was a little tired and grumpy by the end of it!

We were thrilled to have a week at home before heading back to Houston for surgery. It was so fun to be home with Emery and to get to enjoy her room and my own bed! The week flew by pretty quickly before we had to head back. Surgery was scheduled for April 21st but it got moved up to the 19th. We were happy with the date change because that just meant we'd get it over with sooner and I'd have a couple more days with her at home before I had to return to work. Surgery post coming soon!

Last few days in Houston

2010-04-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I have posted! Here are some pictures of our last few days in Houston before we went home for our week long vacation.

Here's Emery worn out after playing in her hospital crib. She was rolling around and fell asleep with her little caterpiller.

Here she is back at Lauren and Dan's house in Katy. She enjoyed hanging out on the quilt Dan's aunt Angela made for her and soaking up some sun. The lucky girl was happy to be missing out on all of the snow in Amarillo!

Whatcha looking at mom?

Playing with her favorite doll. Usually she is trying to eat her face!

Lauren's parents, Mike and Tish are so much fun! We got to hang out with them several times while we were in Houston and they actually were Emery's first baby sitters, besides family. They are terrific parents and have always been so wonderful to us. Every time they would come over, Mike was always the first one to want to hold Emery. He needs a little grand-daughter!

Lauren and Emery after dinner one night. Hudson, their chocolate lab wanted to be included in the picture as well. They have four big labs. Emery just loved them!

Here are Dan and Lauren with Emery. They had a lot of fun trying to get her to laugh for them and were my assistants when we had to do Emery's dressing changes. They were so much fun to stay with for as long as we did. We miss them tons and can't wait to see them again the end fo May.

Well, that's it for the end of our Houston pictures. More to come!

Emery Update

2010-04-09T12:01:00.001-07:00

Sorry, I haven't done any updates lately. Emery had her MRI and CT scans the end of March and they showed that her tumor is another 40% smaller! It has also come completely out of her spine! We couldn't be happier! Our doctor was just as excited and is looking forward to Emery being completely cancer free really soon. We are scheduled for surgery April 21st. Emery's surgeon is one of the best in the nation at removing Neuroblastomas. We are so thankful he is going to be performing the surgery. I hate that it even has to happen but to have such an experienced surgeon is very comforting. He said to expect a 5-7 day stay in the hospital for recovery. She'll have a chest tube again which I am not looking forward to but hopefully it won't have to be in for too long. We are so happy this crazy journey is coming to an end. It will be so great to return to Amarillo the end of this month completely cancer free. I can't believe three months have gone by since Emery was diagnosed. David and I were just talking about it yesterday with my sister and Miles. We have had such different experiences throughout this whole ordeal. I think the past three months have flown by - driving back and forth to the hospital and taking care of Emery has kept me busy. David, on the other hand says that it has felt like an eternity. The poor thing has been so busy with work, the house, our dogs and flying to Houston every weekend. I'm sure he is absolutely exhausted! He is more than ready to have us home! Speaking of, we are currently in Dallas at Sarah's house and are heading home tomorrow. Emery and I drove in yesterday from Houston and David arrived last night with his mom who is visiting her sister. David and I plan to hit the road tomorrow during Emery's naptime - she slept the whole way from Houston to Dallas but this trip is a couple of hours longer. I hope we are lucky enough to get a few hours into the drive before she wakes up! We will spend a little over a week at home and then we are planning on flying back to Houston a day or two before surgery. It will be good to spend another night or two with our Houston roomies, Dan and Lauren. It was so sad saying goodbye to them Wednesday night. They have made the past three months so easy for me and Emery. We couldn't be more thankful for such great friends.

So, that's the plan for now. We will have a relaxing and restful week at HOME and then head back to Houston for surgery. Emery can't afford to get sick before surgery so we will have to limit the amount of people we are around while we are home. :( We will have plenty of time to see everyone once she is home for good though, I promise! We are so looking forward to being back in Amarillo and catching up with everyone. Thanks again for the incredible support and prayers over the past three months. We can't believe we are so close to the end!

4 months old!

2010-03-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Emery turned 4 months old on March 23rd! She is becoming such a big girl! She is rolling over now and is very, very busy. I definitely have my hands full these days trying to keep her entertained during the day!

Here are some pictures that David took this weekend. We have so much fun playing with her in the mornings. She is always so happy in the morning and loves to smile at us.

Here are somethings that Emery is doing now:

Rolling - Emery will roll onto her tummy now and will play for a few minutes before getting tired of it. She hasn't quite figured out that she can lay her head down and relax on her tummy! She still needs some help getting back onto her back sometimes. She is starting to really work those legs and looks like she'll be scooting along pretty soon!

Talking - Emery has started making so many fun noises. We love to hear her cooing and are still anxiously waiting for her to give us her first little giggle. She will get really excited and smile as big as possible but still no laugh!

Occupational therapy - Emery's therapists are so pleased with her head control, rolling, and overall strength. She has done really well for her therapists and surprisingly stays happy for the most part during her appointments. We are looking forward to seeing more improvement in her left hand and arm and know it's getting stronger every day.

Riding in the car - Emery still is a good traveler. I have to drive to Houston from Katy for all of our appointments and she has been doing so well. She will play with her toys and then fall asleep. I am so thankful for that!

Baths - Emery is finally okay with her sponge baths. I am so ready for her central line to be out so that we can give her real baths. I even gave her a bath at the hospital the other night by myself! Usually my mom or David have to keep her warm with the blow dryer the whole time!

Sitting and Standing - Emery wants to be upright all the time now. She wants to be sitting in your lap or standing in your lap at all times! This can get very tiring but her smile makes it all worth it! She is just too cute!

That's all I can think of for now! I can't believe another month has gone by. Hopefully we'll spend her 5 month birthday back in Amarillo!

Lots of Pictures!

2010-03-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well, there has been a lot going on lately! Emery finished up her last round of chemo on March 13th. She did well as always! We didn't get to leave as early as we would have liked on Saturday so my mom and I ended up staying Saturday night at her friend's house and we headed to Dallas on Sunday for Spring Break. We got up early Sunday morning and got on the road. Emery was a perfect little angel and slept the entire way! She tends to sleep quite a bit right after chemo. Her are some pictures...

Sleeping in the hospital - 4th and final round of chemo!

Mom and Emery taking a little nap at Lauren and Dan's. This was sometime before the 4th round of chemo. We were so happy to get so much time with Gigi and are sad that she has gone home. It was so nice having my mom here to help me and keep me company. This has been a really long couple of months but she sure did help it go by quicker! Thanks mom for everything you did for us! We love you and hope you are having fun back home.

When we arrived in Dallas, Emery was in need of a diaper change and feeding so we quickly said hello to David, our friend Matt, and David's cousin Michael who were all at Sarah's house. I went to Sarah's room to change and feed Emery and when I came out, my best friend who I haven't seen in over two months, Niki was sitting on the couch with her baby, Madeline. I haven't seen Maddie since the day she was born and have never held her. I was so shocked! I immediately made her trade babies so that I could hold little Maddie. We had such a good time catching up and playing with the girls. We are sure they will be the best of friends! Thanks for surprising me, Niki!
Future BFF's hanging out on Sarah's bed.

Getting tired of taking pictures!

This is too funny! They were not happy by the end of the photo session!

When in Dallas, I got to see two of my best friends from college, Katie and Tracy. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures when we were at Tracy's house. Here are some pictures from visiting Katie and her baby, Carter who was still in NICU in Frisco. She had to be induced at 32 weeks because his cord was wrapped around his neck and arm. Every time he moved his arm, he would choke himself. It was a pretty scary time for Katie and her husband, Andrew but thankfully, Carter is doing great! They were able to take their little boy home just a few days after our visit! We were so happy to hear their good news!

Baby Carter - just a few days before they took him home.

Katie and Carter

Then we got to see our newest family member, Willow Bentley Morris. David's sister, Hannah lives in Fort Worth so we got to visit them as well. We were happy to see lots of family over at their house. Bo and Rosanne were there as well as David's grandma, Joann. We also got to see some cousins Sidney, Shelby, and Kayla who were there with David's Aunt Mary. It was great to see everyone and have some much needed family time.

Willow, a little less than two weeks old here. Too cute!

Willow and Joann

Bo and Rosanne visiting with Emery
Bo and Emery

Back at Sarah's house, we decided to take some pictures of our girls. Sarah got Emery a precious little dress to match Elle's. Elle was about to take a nap but she cooperated so well and we were able to get some precious pictures of our sweet girls.

We had such a good time visiting everyone in Dallas. We don't have any pictures, but we also had dinner with some good friends, Jon and Camille. Their little boy, Grady is about nine months old and is absolutely adorable. It was so good hanging out with them and reminiscing about the good ole college days.

Friday we went back to the hospital for Emery's occupational therapy appointment and labwork. She did really well at therapy and our therapist complimented her on her head control and rolling. She is concerned about the muscles in her left hand but with time they should get better. Here are some pictures from her session.

After OT we went to the clinic for our usual after chemo labwork. Emery's counts were down so they had to give her some blood - again we are used to this. After her blood transfusion, she got a fever - did not expect that! This has never happened before. So, the clinic was closing and no beds were available on the 9th floor (oncology floor). They sent us to the ER where we would have to wait for a bed to become available. I haven't been scared in a long time, since all of this started really. But when they got us in the trauma room and started hooking Emery up to all of the monitors, the fear came back. She was screaming and there were doctors and nurses everywhere. I didn't know what was going on. The monitors were going crazy becuase her heart rate was too high and the doctors were rushing around and asking us questions. I hated ever minute of it. Finally, once they got her hooked up, I got to hold her and try to calm her down. She quickly calmed down and her heart rate went down pretty quickly. They moved us into a private room to wait and got her started on fluids and antibiotics. Thankfully, it didn't take long to get into a room on the 9th floor. No more monitors, no more beeping - freedom! We love the 9th floor! Emery has not had a fever since the blood transfusion but her blood culture did grow some bacteria so we are still on antibiotics. They took another culture this morning and we are hoping nothing will start growing. The doctor who checked on her today said he's expecting a clear culture since she looks great and hasn't had a fever. If her line is still infected tomorrow, they will have to remove it...don't want that to happen! They would have to put her under in order to do that and we would be in the hospital even longer. We will know more tomorrow morning.

David just headed to the airport. He always hates leaving. I hate it too. We are so ready for this to be over and to get back to a normal life! David wanted to stay until Emery is discharged but I assured him we will be fine! Emery and I will get in lots of playing and cuddle time.

Showin' Cancer Who's Boss

2010-03-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

We have been working hard with Emery on rolling from her back to her tummy and returning to her back. She is getting so much better and is tolerating it well now. She used to just cry when we would put her on her tummy. She was so pitiful! We are happy to announce that she rolled from her tummy to her back all by herself today! Unfortunately, my mom and David were not here today to witness it but after she had done it a couple of times, I got out the camera and got one recorded! Her daddy is so proud!

Long Week!

2010-03-05T17:27:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a busy week! We had a clinic appointment on Monday to check Emery's blood counts. She needed a blood transfusion but we were not surprised. This has become quite routine for us now! Her counts were good enough for me to not have to give her the GCSF shot anymore though! Yay for that! While we were waiting for the blood bank to prepare her blood, I had one of our nurses check the dressing that protects her central line. It looked a little funky to me and they thought she may have a yeast infection on her skin. They changed her dressing and ordered daily dressing changes until it clears up. The home health nurse came on Tuesday to change it and mom and I had to hold Emery down while she screamed the whole time. She has never gotten upset in the past when her dressing has been changed. She gets a little mad when they pull the tape off but usually that's it. She kicked and screamed for about 20 minutes. It was awful. The nurse told us to call our doctor because she was afraid she was going to get a serious infection in her line if it didn't get checked out. So we called Dr. Thompson and he told us to come on in. We had to drive into Houston during rush hour but luckily it didn't take that long. He met us in the lobby and took us up to the clinic even though it was closing. He is such a nice guy...we think so anyway. I think the clinic nurses were a little annoyed with him for bringing us in without an appointment and for not following proper procedure. He didn't want us having to sit in the ER for hours just to get it looked at. Anyway, the nurses got us in the computer and looked at Emery's rash. They redressed it, told us her line looks good - very reassuring. They decided it would be best to have us come back the next day to have it redressed by them instead of the home health nurse. So, we made the drive into Houston again on Wednesday and Thursday for her dressing changes. Our home health nurse came today and Emery did great! She got a little upset a couple times but I think it's because our nurse has a very loud raspy voice. I think she was scared more than anything! Her leg looks much better today and I think it will be cleared up in no time. I am so glad it is getting better. Emery seems to be feeling better as well. She has been all smiles today and has even put up with a little bit of tummy time without too much fuss!

Last night we went to a dinner over at Craig Waibel's house. I'm sure you've read on my mom's blog about how he plays soccer for the Houston Dynamo. He and some of his teammates have started a yearly fundraiser for the cancer center. We, along with some other kids/families, are going to be on the flyers advertising the event in May. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun! People pledge money to volunteers who are going to shave their heads - Dynamo players, dads, teachers, principals, etc. The day of the event, there will be tailgating and head-shaving before the Dynamo game. Everyone who gets their head shaved gets a Waibel Warriors t-shirt and a ticket to the game. I think they are working on also getting Locks of Love involved so that women who want to donate their hair can get their hair cut as well. We are trying to convince David that he needs to shave his in honor of Emery's soon to be bald head...he says babies are supposed to be bald! I don't really want him to have a shaved head but it's for such a good cause! In addition to the pledges, they will be selling t-shirts, hats and bracelets. It will be a lot of fun to go back and see everyone. It sounded like the fundraiser was a huge success last year and they are anticipating this year will be even better.

So, Emery has started to lose some of her hair. I'm not sure if it is from the chemo or normal baby hair loss. Either way, I wanted to get her some cute hats to wear. I looked on Etsy.com the other night and got some of these precious beanies. I hope they fit her itty bitty head! I also got her a flower headband and some owl clips...the clips will have to wait a while!

I got a few of these beanies in different colors. Can't wait to see them on her!

This isn't Emery - it's just a picture of the headband I bought.

I got one owl in pink and one in turquoise. They are adorable! She'll have to grow some hair before we can use them though!

David's sister, Hannah had her baby girl today! Welcome to the world Willow Bentley Morris! We can't wait to meet you!

Tomorrow, my dad and his wife, Marsha are coming to visit for the day. They are staying the night in Dallas with Sarah and Miles and heading our way tomorrow morning. We are looking forward to their visit. I'll be sure to get some pictures and post some tomorrow!

Off to bed! I hope everyone has had a great week!

Three months have flown by...

2010-02-28T19:15:00.000-08:00

Well, on February 23rd Emery turned 3 months old! I can't believe three months have already flown by. It does not seem like that long ago since we brought our precious Emery Jane home from the hospital in Amarillo. We had a wonderful six weeks together lounging on the couch in our PJ's till late in the afternoon waiting for David to come home from work. Occasionally, we actually got ourselves fixed up and would go eat lunch with him or we would meet up with some of my girlfriends. But really, most of the time we just hung out at home and cuddled! I loved every minute of it. Emery was six weeks old when we were admitted into the hospital in Amarillo. It's crazy to think that seven weeks have gone by since then. I am so thankful to have had this extra time taking care of my baby girl. We have had so much fun together despite all of the hospital visits and chemo treatments. We still spend a lot of our time in our PJ's and cuddling but she is getting bigger now and is a lot more active these days. Here are some cute pictures of our sweet baby girl. You can really start to see her personality shining through! I love this girl!

Sweet Emery Jane,

Here are a few of the things you are doing now at three months old. I'm sure there are many more but my brain doesn't work too well these days!

I love our mornings together. After I feed you early in the morning, I keep you right next to me in bed so that we can sleep a little bit longer. You always are so happy in the morning.

You smile at anything I say and I can tell you're going to be laughing any day now! I love how you smile with your eyes. They are so beautiful.

You are making the cutest little sounds now too. It's adorable when Gigi or I am talking to you and you act like you are joining right in with us. So cute!

You are holding your head up really well now but still don't like tummy time too much! We have been working really hard with you on rolling over and you are doing so well! Some kids at the hospital gave you a bright fuzzy catapillar that has become your tummy time friend! Gigi can always get you to hold your head up for a long time with him!

You hold your hands together a lot of the time and look adorable doing it!

You are so close to being able to put your paci back in your mouth when it falls out. You will use your hands to keep it in and sometimes pull it out on accident. Pretty soon you'll be a pro at it!

You have slept through the night twice! Shh! Don't tell Dr. Thompson! For a while you had been waking me up every two to three hours at night and Dr. Thompson didn't want you going longer than three so you could gain some more weight. Now you are sleeping for 3-5 hours a night. The night you slept from 11:00 to 6:00 am was wonderful! ;)

You are such a good girl riding in the car! Gigi sits in the back seat with you most of the time but I think you'll be just fine back there by yourself when she goes home...I hope I'm right!

You like the swing more these days and nap in it when we eat dinner with Dan and Lauren. It's really funny when the one of the dogs bumps into the swing and we can't tell who is more stunned, you or the dog!

You threw your first big fit at a restaurant not too long ago and scared Dan and Lauren into having dogs for the rest of their lives instead of children! Lauren said you sounded like a Gremlin getting drenched with water! Sorry baby girl, but she was right! ;)

You have had three rounds of chemo and have handled them beautifully! You are such an amazingly strong girl! I can tell you are going to be able to handle anything!

You have started to lose your hair...don't know if it's the chemo or normal baby hair loss. Either way, you are starting to look like an old man who is bald on top and has long hair in the back! Pretty funny!

Well, it's been a wonderful three months with you baby girl. Your daddy and I love you more than we ever imagined possible and can't wait to see your personality unfold even more. You have brought so much joy to our lives and we cannot even remember what our lives were like without you.

Yay for 80%!

2010-02-18T12:09:00.000-08:00

Emery's tumor is now 80% smaller than it was when she was diagnosed! We are so thrilled to know that the chemotherapy is working and were absolutely blown away when we heard how much the tumor had shrunk. I honestly didn't have any expectations going into the scans this week because I didn't want to be disappointed like I was after the first round. We weren't the only ones pleasantly surprised by the scan results - our doctors were quite pleased as well! Our team of doctors had a meeting yesterday to discuss her treatment plan. There were three possiblilities:
1. Stop treatment and observe since this type of cancer should go away on its own
2. Continue with another round of chemo to shrink it some more
3. Remove what's left surgically

After much debate, they decided that it would be best to do another round of chemo since she is handling it well and the tumor is extremely responsive. There is still a small portion of the tumor going into her spinal column but the pressure on the spinal cord has reduced drastically. The surgeons decided that it still would not be an easy surgery to remove the tumor. They also decided that since it is still in her spinal column it would not be wise to stop treatment and observe. If the tumor were located somewhere else in her body, they probably wouldn't treat her anymore. We were prepared to hear that she would need another round since we really didn't know before this week that there were going to be other options. So, tomorrow we will go in to the clinic to see our doctor and will be admitted into the hospital for her third round of chemo. She will receive three days of chemo and then we will probably stay in the hospital for observation for a couple more days. After that, we will go into the clinic a couple times a week to check on her blood levels and get transfusions if necessary. Last time it took a couple of weeks for her platelets to recover so we will be prepared for that. After this round, they will do scans and re-evaluate her situation again. More than likely they will have to surgically remove what is left of the tumor if it is considered safe for Emery.

Thanks so much for all of your thoughts, prayers, and support! Emery is one lucky little girl to have so many people pulling for her. We are so happy we were able to give you all some good news!

Been a while...sorry!

2010-02-11T19:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been a while since my last post...I'm sure most of you have been keeping up with my mom's blog. She's much better about keeping everyone informed! Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

Emery and daddy early one morning. I thought this was too cute!

Here's my mom talking and getting some work done! She's been such a huge help to me since David's been gone. I'm sure her work and her hubby miss her terribly but I'm glad she's here!!

Emery loved the crib soother at the hospital so mom bought her one from Target the other day. Emery is totally mesmerized by it...I think it looks like she's watching a movie! She's also started sucking on her hands a lot. I keep thinking she's going to become a thumb sucker but so far she's sticking with her passy.

Well, Emery is finally up to 9 lbs...doesn't sound like much but we're happy! She made it through a bath today without getting upset! She's not a fan of bath time since we have to give her sponge baths due to the location of her central line. Dr. Thompson called last night to tell us her platelets made the appropriate jump after the transfusion so hopefully they will stay up. We head to CyFair tomorrow for her audiology test. They started it the last time we were in the hospital but she didn't stay asleep long enough to complete the test. They told me to bring her sleepy and hungry tomorrow so that I can feed her when we get there and she'll go to sleep for the procedure. I hope she cooperates! Monday and Tuesday we have to be at the hospital at 6 am for her MRI and CT scans. If there is not a significant decrease in the tumor then we'll start the third round of chemo on Wednesday. It will be three days of chemo this time and then we'll probably stay in the hospital for a few more days for observation. It will probably take two weeks from first day of chemo for her counts to come back up. Then it would only be one more week before we would need to do another MRI and start the fourth round. So, you can see why it's hard to figure out when a good time would be to try to come home. It seems like we should just stay for all of it instead of coming back and forth. I hope we'll be coming home to Amarillo soon but it's so hard to figure out when. At the same time, I am so comfortable with our doctor here and the clinic that I can't imagine leaving and continuing treatment in Amarillo. After talking with our doctor Wednesday it was pretty obvious that he thinks we should stay as long as possible but he wouldn't come right out and say it. He wants us to get back to a normal way of life though and really emphasizes the importance of us bonding as a family when Emery is so young. I can tell he is really torn when we ask him what he thinks we need to do. He's such a great guy and I am so thankful that we have him taking care of Emery. He is so great with all of his patients - he makes all of us feel like we are his number one priority. Of course, since Emery is such a cute little 'peanut', we know we really are his favorites!

So, do we know when we are coming home? NOPE! This could drag on for a while but I'd rather be here and get the best care possible. In the long run, a few months being away from home is nothing if it means we are doing what's best for our precious baby girl! I hate being gone and I'm so ready to get back to a normal routine but for now, I'm going to keep doing my number one job and that's taking care of Emery!

2010-02-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

Well, we are out of the hospital again and back in Katy. We only had to stay one night in the hospital last week for Emery's chemo. She did really well with the exception of one crying episode. It is normally pretty easy to calm her down when she is upset but that night it took forever! It really was only about 15 or 20 minutes but it seemed like an eternity! I don't know how moms of colicky babies do it! We were happy to only have to stay one night and are happy to be back at Lauren and Dan's house. Here are some pictures from our stay in the hospital.

We have been working on Emery's neck stregth lately. Since she's been in the hospital so much the past few weeks, we have fallen a little bit behind on the normal baby things she should be doing. She's working really hard to get caught up! My sister Sarah got her this tummy time water toy and as you can see, she is really enjoying it! Thanks, Aunt Sarah!!

Here's one of our many nurses, Scott. He changes her dressing on her central line once a week. She doesn't mind too much until he pulls off the tape! She lets him know that she's not his biggest fan when he does that!

Here's our favorite resident, Alok Katari. He is another one of the doctors on Emery's team. He is so great with all of the kids on our floor. He even let a little girl paint his nails green! He is a super nice guy. He is moving on to another hospital so we're sad we won't be seeing him anymore.

This is our nurse, Debbie. She was very helpful and informative! She was full of suggestions and she tried to talk me through how to give Emery her shot the night we left the hospital. I was too chicken to give it to her though. I have now learned how to give it but it's just as hard every time. I thought it would get easier but every night it takes me forever to get up the nerve to do it!

Here's Emery hanging out in bed at Dan and Lauren's. We spend a lot of time in bed! We haven't been doing much the past few days. We ate dinner last night at Lauren's parents' house. We had a good time visiting with them. Today, mom and I ran to Target to get out of the house for a little bit. Other than that, we have just been hanging out at the house. David left to go back to Amarillo for the week and will be back Thursday night. I put him on speaker phone last night and Emery smiled several times listening to his voice. She misses her daddy and so do I! We look forward to him coming back!

We head back to the outpatient clinic Wednesday to do labwork. Hopefully, everything will look good and I won't have to give her the shot anymore! I believe they will do an MRI sometime next week. Other than that, there's nothing big coming up! I guess that's it for now!

Daddy's Little Girl

2010-01-26T10:49:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist when I saw this little outfit at Target the other day! Emery is definitely Daddy's little girl! She lights up any time he starts talking to her and especially loves his funny voices he makes. She's pretty lucky to have such a sweet daddy. I can't wait to see their relationship grow as she gets older.

Here's Emery in one of her little headbands her nurse, Allison, gave her.

The weather has been so nice here in Houston. We went for a little stroll around the neighborhood yesterday afternoon. It was Emery's first walk...yes, I know she's 9 weeks old, but it was cold in Amarillo! She looked around for a little bit and then took a little nap. I think she enjoyed her first walk!

We have had such a good time hanging out with Dan and Lauren. They are amazing hosts and have made us feel so welcome. We played a really fun card game last night called Dutch Blitz. It's a mix between Speed and Solitare. We laughed our butts off last night playing it. If you know David, then you know he has a pretty bad case of ADD. Well, this is a fast paced game (like Speed) and you have to watch several different piles at a time to put your cards in. That probably doesn't make sense, but it was hilarious listening to David the whole game. There was too much going on for his brain to process. Needless to say, he did not win. In fact, I think his score was in the negatives the whole time! We are going to give it another try tonight and hopefully, he'll improve!

Well, we head back to the hospital tomorrow morning. We will see Dr. Thompson at the outpatient clinic where they will weigh Emery and do some lab work. They aren't sure if there will be a room available at the hospital or not. So, it may be Thursday before we'll be admitted. Emery has been eating pretty well the past few days - not for long periods of time but very frequently! It is a full time job feeding this little lady. Let's pray she's gained a significant amount of weight since we left the hospital! I do not want Dr. Thompson mad at us!

Emery Update

2010-01-24T17:32:00.001-08:00

It's been quite a while since my last post, but I'm sure most of you know why! Here's a short version of what has been our life for the past three weeks. We took our precious baby to the hospital January 5th with a fever and a droopy eye. After a series of tests and a roller coaster of emotions we were informed that our brand new baby, who we were already more in love with than we could ever imagine, has a rare infant cancer, called a neuroblastoma. We could not believe what we were hearing and had no idea what the future was going to hold. What we have found over the past three weeks is that we are surrounded by people who love us and Emery so much. Emery has thousands of people all over the country praying for her to be healed. People have brought us meals, sent us cards, sent over friends of friends to pray with us in Houston, and generously donated money to a foundation started in Emery's name. The generosity has been endless and we could not be more grateful.

Here are some pictures of what is going on back home. We are so blessed to work at a place where everyone comes together when someone is in need. Not only do we work with a wonderful faculty and staff but we also have tremendous students with huge hearts. The student council came up with a fund raiser in Emery's honor. The students can buy paper links to write a note to us and Emery on. All the links have been put together forming a chain that is hanging in the hallways. I can't wait to see what the students wrote on each link. I love that we will have it to show Emery when she is older. The students came up with this, and many of the links were purchased by students David nor I have ever taught. How awesome is that? I am so proud to be an AHS Sandie!

Hanging the Emery chain in the hallways at school! It looks so long! I wish we could see it in person.

This was the beginning of the chain. Our friend Patty, the student council sponsor, sent us these pictures. Thank you AHS for loving us and Emery so much. We miss you all and look forward to getting back!

I loaded a bunch of pictures but not in any particular order...

These are Emery's favorite doctors, Dr. Thompson and Dr. Javi. They have been so great to us and Emery. They love giving David a hard time about everything and you can tell they truly love what they do. Dr. Javi is always playing with Emery and making cute little noises at her and Dr. Thompson is always emphasizing how he wants us to get back to being a normal family. I love that he doesn't want us thinking of Emery as a sick baby and just wants us to get back to living life like we used to. We couldn't be happier with our doctors.

Here's Emery hanging out at Dan and Lauren's house. Lauren's mom went shopping and bought Emery lots of new clothes...those of you who have seen her closet at home know that she is not in need of more clothes, but I didn't pack very well when we were rushed off to Houston. I'm very thankful for the clothes because I didn't pack much for little miss Emery!

My dear friend, Ashley came to visit us on Friday! It was so good to see her again. She got to see Emery when she was about a week old in Amarillo. We love you Ashley!

This is Allison, Emery's favorite nurse! She was with us for three nights in PCU. A couple of those nights were really rough! Emery was really fussy and had the worst diaper rash possible. Allison helped us in so many ways. She brought us a swing for Emery, a toy for her crib that played lullabies, doctored up her diaper rash, and gave her some cute little headbands so that she looked like a girl when she was wearing the hospital issued t-shirts. We loved Allison and wish she could be with us every night!

Here are a couple of shots of Emery smiling! She has been all smiles lately! It's amazing to me that she is still so happy despite everything she has been put through. She's such a sweet girl!

Thanks to everyone who is praying for us and Emery. We appreciate that more than anything. We will head back to the hospital on Wednesday to see Dr. Thompson. We will be admitted either Wednesday or Thursday for Emery's second round of chemo. She will have one chemo treatment and then they will need to monitor her for a day or two. A week and a half later, they will do an MRI to look at the tumor again. There is a chance we will go home after that, but they still want to do another MRI at the end of the 21 day cycle. I have a feeling we'll be in Houston until then. I am going to try to keep blogging, so stay tuned!

More Pictures

2009-12-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

We ordered this cute little knitted hat on Etsy.com and have had so much fun taking pictures of Emery in it. We attempted to take pictures three times last Sunday! Emery would wake up and want to eat, she would get very mad that she was naked, and she even peed and pooped on me a couple of times! It was pretty hilarious! We got some great pictures out of it though. I am so thankful to have a talented husband who enjoys playing around with photography!

Here's one from when Mom and Rich were still here. We don't have any pictures of the three of us so I thought I'd put this one up.

Well, Emery is three weeks and two days old now. She is eating well and is up to 7 lbs 5 oz! We are very happy about that! She is still so tiny though...she lives in sleepers because none of her cute outfits fit her yet. She is eating more now, so maybe she's about to go through a little growth spurt. She is a very good girl and likes to sleep at night giving me some good 4 hour stretches of sleep most nights. We stay in bed as long as possible each morning and then move the the couch where we hang out most of the day. I love holding her and watching her cute facial expressions while she sleeps. She has the sweetest smile and is very expressive with her eyes. I love when she is awake and soaking in everything around her. We look forward to Daddy coming home every afternoon and can't wait to have two weeks with him during Christmas break. It is going to be so much fun to have that time together! I have four and a half more weeks with this little girl...I can't believe half of my maternity leave is already gone! Time has flown by! It is going to be so hard to go back to work. I will just have to keep in mind that I'll have Spring break to look forward to and then all summer!

Pictures of Emery

2009-12-02T19:55:00.001-08:00

Look Who Came Early!

2009-11-26T18:58:00.001-08:00

This is me at 34 weeks, one of the last pregnancy photos taken. We were planning to have time to take a few more!

On Monday, November 23rd, I got to school at the usual time and began preparing for my first class of the day. Class was about to start when I stood up from my desk and, much to my surprise, realized that my water had broken! Without saying anything to my kids, I left the room and grabbed another teacher in the hall. She called the secretary, who made a lovely announcement over the intercom for the entire school to hear: "David Williams, please go to your wife's room immediately!" We quickly headed home to pick up our bags and go to the doctor's office. They confirmed that my water had broken and we took off for the hospital. With much excitement and a little bit of nervousness, we checked in and labor soon began in earnest.

We called our family and friends--the local ones waited by the phone for more news while the out of towners began scrambling to get here. Sarah and Elle hopped a plane from Dallas, my dad and Marsha left work early to drive from Abilene and my mom and Rich had to rearrange vacation plans and catch a flight out of Chicago. Susan just started a new job and was not able to make the trip right now.

David and I were by ourselves for most of the day and he was a great help to me through all of my labor which progressed quickly. Dr. David (not my husband--that's the doctor's last name!) checked me at 4 PM and said it was time for us to meet Emery. Dad and Marsha had just arrived in time for us to say hi before beginning to push. Mom and Rich made it to DFW but Mom's flight to Amarillo wasn't till 5:20 so she was disappointed that she would probably not get there in time. David's cousin Michael picked Sarah and Elle up at the airport, drove like crazy to the hospital and dropped Sarah off at the front while he took care of Elle. Sarah ran past our room and almost into the room next door before bursting into our room, throwing open the curtain and frantically calling my name as the doctor looked at her like she was crazy! Luckily, she made it in time to help David and me during Emery's delivery. They were both so encouraging and a huge help during delivery, as were Dr. David and the nurse. At some point, Sarah began to feel faint so I offered her some of my ice chips and Dr. David suggested that she put her head between her legs. :)

The rest of the family were gathered outside the door trying to hear what was going on! Emery Jane entered the world at 5:25 PM, weighing 6 lbs., 7 oz. and measuring 19 inches long. She has a little bit of dark hair and her Daddy's long fingers and toes. It was the happiest moment of our lives! We are so thrilled to have our little girl.

Mom finally arrived about 6:45 PM and poor Rich got left behind at DFW to catch a later flight since there was only one seat left and Mom insisted on taking it. Our room was filled with visitors till late that evening, all waiting for their chance to see and hold Emery for the first time. Besides having my parents, Sarah and Elle, we were happy that David's parents, grandmother, brother, sister, niece, nephew, and cousin, as well as many of our friends were there to share this happy time with us. Thanks to David's brother Jonathan and cousin Michael for running back and forth to the airport to pick people up! We looked forward to our first night with our brand new little girl and were able to keep her in the room with us all night long.

The next couple of days were a blur but we are now at home and taking advantage of my mom's help and Rich's wonderful cooking. Dad and Marsha spent the first night and visited again on Tuesday before heading home. Sarah and Elle were only here for a day but we had a lot of fun with them and were happy they made it. Elle was very interested in Emery and seemed to be excited about having a new cousin. We think she will be a good big sister one day! We don't have all the photos of everyone who was here so we will post them soon!

We are now a family of three! We can't describe the happiness that Emery has already brought to our lives.

Baby Shower and Ten-Year Reunion

2009-10-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been forever since I have posted anything...things have been busy around here. I am now 33 weeks and getting more and more anxious as the days pass. We still have so much to do in Emery's room and I still have to plan for missing 7 weeks of school. It'll all get done somehow, right?

I had a wonderful shower here in Amarillo a couple of weeks ago. I have the sweetest friends who threw it for me and also got me my car seat and stroller. We got tons of gifts all of which are in the office right now waiting for the nursery to be finished!! Emery is going to be very well taken care of! Here are a few shots from the shower.

Me with Tricia, David's sister and Rosanne, David's momma.

Me with all of my wonderful hostesses...a few were missing but they are all very appreciated!

Some of my girl friends and a couple of adorable kiddos.

Opening gifts...these were some really cute embroidered bibs with Emery's name on them.

Well, this is kind of out of order....the next couple of pictures were from September when we went to Abilene for my ten year reunion. We had a good time catching up with some of my really good friends from home. I loved seeing them and wish we were able to get together more often.

Of course, we had to take a cheesy picture! This is me with some of my best friends, Misty, Ashley P., and Ashley H. Love these girls!

So great to see them!

Here is a picture of me a week ago when I was 32 weeks along. Now I'm 33 weeks and feel bigger already. We went to the doctor last week and he said that he'll do a sonogram next time to get an idea of how big she is. She is moving all the time, getting the hick-ups multiple times a day and loves kicking me in the ribs while I'm trying to teach my kids! I love feeling her move but am getting a little annoyed with the jabs to the ribs! I can't wait to meet her but hope that I have at least until her due date to get ready!

22 Weeks

2009-08-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

So, I'm 22 weeks now and feeling great aside from the occasional back ache. I went to Dallas this weekend for Sarah's 30th birthday and to see my friend Tracy's baby, Avery. It was a fun trip but way too fast! I don't have any pictures though because I forgot to take a camera! Hopefully, I can get some from Sarah. Elle was adorable and is just talking away! Apparently, I am going to be Aunt Bobby...at least until she can say Bonnie! She called me Bobby and would just smile as big as possible after she would say it. I loved it! Sarah called me after I left and told me that she was going to the front door saying, "my Bobby, my Bobby." How stinkin' cute is that!?

It was great seeing two of my girlfriends from college, Katie and Tracy. We went to lunch and hung out with little Avery. She's almost two months old and is absolutely adorable. I loved seeing her and Tracy together. Tracy is already such a good mommy.

Well, here are a couple of pictures of my growing belly. It has started to really stick out there now. Can't believe I'm more than half way through my pregnancy!

Laundry room and baby bedding...

2009-07-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

Update on the house projects -

David is finished with the yard for now...he is going to hydro-mulch and seed (those may be the same thing, but I don't really know...) the yard in September when it cools off a little bit. So for now, we just have dirt in the front yard. It does have a brand new sprinkler system, new retaining wall, and three new trees though! I will try to post some pictures although it's not too pretty without grass. Now, he is working on the new laundry room. It's sheet-rocked and almost ready for texture. He's hoping to have it textured and tiled by the end of the week. Here are some pictures of the laundry room...

David texturing the walls.
David built a platform for my washer and dryer. We didn't want to pay $500 for the stands that go with our washer and dryer...don't know why anyone would.

Some of you have asked about my baby bedding so I thought I'd post a picture from the internet. I still have to find a crib and a glider for her room but I guess there's no rush on that. I think I want to paint the crib yellow to go with her bedding. That's about all I know about her room for now though! David will have to take a break from the rest of the house for a weekend to redo her closet, so until then, I can't really do anything in there. Her closet is a really good size but the door is right in the middle and the closet goes on forever in both directions. So, David's going to tear out the door and put in double doors so that all of the space can be easily used. He wasn't too thrilled about this project but it will be worth it in the end! :)

19 week sonogram

2009-07-14T12:51:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from our sonogram today. We are officially having a girl and as far as we know she is just perfect. We see our doctor next week when I'm sure he'll go over the sonogram details with us. She was moving around a little bit and even had the hickups for a while. It was so much fun getting to see her again and how much she is changing. She measured right on for her due date and weighs approximately 10 ounces right now. Sorry the pictures are a little freaky looking right now...hope you still think she's a cutie!

I felt her move!

2009-07-12T08:00:00.001-07:00

This morning I was lying in bed contimplating getting up when I felt and saw my belly jump! It was the craziest thing ever! So I called David over to me and he got to feel her punch around a little bit too. It made me so happy to finally feel her. So, I stayed in bed a little while longer and felt her a few more times. It was wonderful. I can't wait to feel her all the time now...she had better sleep at night though! ;)

19 Weeks

2009-07-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

So, some people have been bugging me about getting a belly photo on here so I finally took one today. We had a wedding to go to this afternoon so I thought that would be a good time to get a photo since I don't get fixed up very often!

We have a sonogram on Tuesday to check out the baby's organs and everything. Hopefully everything is just perfect. I'll post some pictures next week!

We're Having a Girl!!

2009-06-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

No pictures to post, but we did find out today that we are having a precious little girl - well, my doctor is 98% sure! I have been wanting a girl since Sarah and Susan both have little girls right now and I have this vision of them all being best friends. So, a month ago when my doctor was saying it looked like there appeared to be boy parts, I have to admit I was a tad bit sad. Over the past four weeks though I have become quite attached to the little guy...

So, when we saw the sonogram this afternoon we were just shocked that things had completely changed and now we are having to come up with little girl names! I am so excited about having a girl and even happier to know everything looked just as it should. It's always such a relief to hear those words out of your doctor's mouth.

We go have our big sonogram in a few weeks to make sure everything is developing correctly and we should know for sure that it's a girl then. I'll be sure to let everyone know!

12 weeks!

2009-05-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

Our little one

Look closely...is it a boy? We might know in four more weeks!

Well, we had our 12 week appointment today with our doctor. I didn't think it would be a very eventful visit but my doctor ended up doing a sonogram. I was so happy to see our little baby and hear it's strong heartbeat. David couldn't get his class covered so he had to miss out on all of the action. He was pretty bummed that he didn't get to be there. Anyway, the baby was moving his/her arms and legs around and actually looked like a little person this time. So much fun! The doctor said he/she has a really strong heart beat and he was really happy with how everything looked. I am so relieved to get through this first trimester...maybe now I will actually get my appetite back!

We're having a baby!

2009-04-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

It's official! We're having a baby! David and I went to the doctor today for our first visit. It was amazing to see our sweet little baby on the screen and watch its tiny heart beat. I was nervous all morning about going but everything is perfect! I am a little more than 8 weeks pregnant and due December 5th. I will be sure to keep you all updated on any news!

A Blizzard, in Texas??

2009-03-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

Jake and Josie leaping through the snow

David going out to get some pictures of the house

This is the rock wall that lines our driveway - the snow drift is as tall as it is!

The pups always get really frisky in the snow and then they want in after about 5 minutes!

This is outside our bedroom!

The back of the house - the snow just piled up outside our doors

We had to finish caulking everything Thursday after school to get ready for the storm...It's a good thing we did!

So, there's nothing like living in the Texas Panhandle...weather in the 60's and 70's all week and then they predict blizzard like conditions on Friday. Who would have thought we would get this much snow so late in the year. I thought we already had the last day of winter??!! This is what our house looks like right now. The snow isn't really that deep but the snow drifts are incredible. The wind was blowing like crazy all day yesterday and the snow didn't stop falling until sometime early this morning. So, I'm guessing our track meet is canceled...unless we're all going out there with snow shovels!

SFA home meet

2009-03-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

400 hurdlers hurdling once again...

Track meet on Saturday

Some of the track girls

Me and Kate in front of the new UC

Over spring break I got to go back to Nacogdoches for the first time since I graduated in 2004. So much has changed!!! The campus is still as beautiful as it was then, the trees alone make it gorgeous. Now there are new dorms, parking garages, new department buildings, and a new recreation center for students. I was really impressed but kind of sad it wasn't the same old SFA. We joked around about how it's a real university now! We also found out that our dorm is now considered the "ghetto" dorms...so sad! They were the dorms everyone wanted when we were there! Anyway, we had so much fun walking around campus and reminiscing about the good old college days. We watched SFA run in their home meet and enjoyed catching up with the coaches. It was a wonderful weekend in East Texas. I hope we do it again next year! Here are some pictures!

80's Prom

2009-03-01T17:11:00.000-08:00

Some of the girls from our old neighborhood

A couple who we work with

Us, Delynn and Mark, Dan and Lauren

Us with Matt and Niki

Well, we had an 80's Prom for Valentine's Day. Some of our friends decided that we needed to do something fun for Valentine's Day so we rented the historic "Nat" here in town and had everyone invite people to come. We were so worried that it would be a flop but it was a blast! Everyone keeps asking us when we're going to do it again...not for a long time! It was a little stressful worrying about the money and the turn out! We were so glad that we did it though and so thankful it was a hit! Here are some pictures from the night. Some of our best friends from Houston came in for the party - Dan and Lauren, you're the best! Another couple who we have gotten to know through Dan and Lauren came in from Oklahoma. We were so happy to have friends in town, especially those four. They are always a blast to be around. Enjoy the pics!

Progress!

2009-03-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

A view from the inside. The room at the far end is going to be my laundry room!

View from the laundry room - this is the den and breakfast nook at the end.

View from the kitchen.
New french doors. We love our free lights from Sarah and Miles!
View of our lovely back yard. We haven't painted the siding yet or trimmed out the windows or doors. That will be done soon...
The men hard at work!

Well, we have decked the roof and it's going to be shingled this week! We, well, I should say David, has been working his butt off to get the addition finished. We are making progress slowly but surely. He is ready to start working on the inside, as am I. I can't wait to do the fun things like painting and decorating. But for now, we have to get the outside done. David has finished the wiring and soon will be sheet rocking! Yay! Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like right now. We do not keep a very clean work site....please look through all of the mess!