Last Year's Goals

This is the post that I write to see how well I did on my goals throughout the year 2015.  It was about 50% this year which is a little disappointing considering I only had 4. 

1) Make a new decoration for every holiday this year.
           --This was almost a complete fail.  I bought 3 huge 4x4 posts with great intentions but I was only able to get 4th of July ones made. 

2) Run another 1/2 marathon.  My goal time is under 2 hours!
            -- I actually ran 2 this year.  The first was in April and my time was no where close to me goal.  The 2nd was in September and my time was 2 hours 7 minutes.  I was disappointed that I didn't make it under 2 hours but it was still a personal record.

3) Call an extended family member every week. 
           -- I think I have to consider this one a fail also.  I did talk to family members more this year but it was more like once a month then once week.

4) Get the attic organized and the guest room put together. 
            -- This goal was shifted a little around April.  We decided to start work on the kitchen rather then the attic.  We still have a few things to do in the kitchen but I think we did great this year considering we have done all the work ourselves (and by that I mean Fred).   

Family Pictures 2015

I always wait to share our family pictures until I have sent out our Christmas cards.  These were taken the first of November 2015.

Family Update 2015

Every year when I send out our Christmas cards I let everyone know that there is a family update on our blog and every year I scramble to try and write one so people have something to read if they don't want to search through the entire past year of the blog.  So here we go...

Fred:  He is currently in the middle of his 3rd year of his orthopedic residency.  He keeps busy with working at the hospital and picking up stat care shifts every few nights.  When he is home he works on our house.  He is quite the amazing handyman and even tore down a wall to make our main floor an all open concept.  He still finds time to play with the kids and fit in some golf outings when the weather is nice. 

Blaiden:  This little boy has had a wonderful year!  He has learned so much and grown a ton.  He now attends preschool 2 days a week and wishes he could go every day.  He took swimming lessons and now thinks he is an Olympic swimmer.  This is a little scary when he jumps into a pool without his floaties on thinking he can swim when in reality he still needs a lot of practice.  His favorite thing has moved from Mickey Mouse to superhero's especially Spiderman.  Although Mickey is still in 2nd place.

Adilene:  Watching this little girl grow this year has been amazing.  She has learned so much, for example she knows about 12 signs, she has moved on from crawling and started walking, eats like a champ, and drinks from a straw.  She also took swimming lessons and loved every minute she was in the water.  She loves her brother, the dog, mommy, and daddy (probably in that exact order).  She loves to dance and is also very good at letting you know if she doesn't like something.  Recently she was diagnosed with ALL and so she is ending the year in the hospital.  The year 2016 will be a year of fighting for her but we are all here supporting her throughout this.

Jessi:  I think the year 2015 was pretty fantastic.  I got to run 2 half marathons this year and set a personal record time during my second one.  After Fred finished taking down the wall I painted our cabinets and put new hardware on and love the way it looks.  This summer my garden produced so well I didn't even have to go to the famers market.  Fred and I took our first kid-free vacation to Canada and had a blast.  This past month has been very hard for Fred and I but Adilene has surprised us by how strong she is and we know that will help her in this battle. 

Merry Christmas.

Blaiden the Truck Driver

We decided since Fred and I both wanted to be in the hospital with Adilene while we figured everything out we would send Blaiden back to Colorado to get spoiled.  We had to wait a few days and had some wonderful friends watch Blaiden for a couple nights.  My brother Thad came to get him in his Semi-truck.  Blaiden was so excited to go ride in the big truck and even though we knew it would be hard for him to make it the 23 hours home he was ready to become a trucker.

It took about 2 1/2 days for them to get home and I think Blaiden loved every minute of it.  Thad had a good time too, although he said Blaiden is kind of hard to sleep with.  On their second night Thad offered to get a hotel where they could go swimming but Blaiden said "no Thad we have to sleep in the truck!"  That is how much he loved it!

I have been getting pictures from his time in Colorado and he has defiantly had a good time.  He is being passed around between all the grandparents and my brothers.  For about the first week I would try and talk to him on the phone and he wouldn't even have time to talk to me.  Now he is getting a little better and wants to call me but he still tells me he will be home in 4 and 4 weeks. 

 Fred and I can not wait to have him back with us!

Adilene's Diagnosis

I will start this story back at the very beginning.  While we were in Colorado Adilene started getting a few little red spots on her arms and legs.  I asked Fred about it and he talked to our friend Andy who is our go to doctor any time we have a question.  Neither were very concerned and so we just kept an eye on it. 

On Thanksgiving day Adilene was playing on some stairs.  Fred was sitting right beside her, she turned around and missed a step, Fred was right there to catch her but after that she stopped walking.  Fred checked her all out and her joints seemed fine.  He just assumed that she had a small hairline fracture and it would heal on its own or we could wait and get an x-ray when we got home if she hadn't started walking again yet. 

A week later The day the kids and I were getting ready to head to Denver to come back home.  Adilene woke up and her rash had gotten worse and you could tell she just didn't feel good.  I talked with Fred and we were just going to wait until we got home.  Around 2pm my parents came home and we all loaded up to head to Denver.  Adilene has just woken up from a nap and still didn't look like she felt good.  We started our drive but I was talking to 3 different doctors trying to see if they knew what could be going on.  Finally when we were getting into springs we decided to go to the ER just to get her checked out and run some tests.  They ran a few things and did some blood work but her CBC clotted so we didn't get those results.  We left with a diagnosis of HSP and were told to follow up with her doctor on Monday. 

We flew home on Saturday and she seemed to be doing a little better.  On Sunday she didn't feel very good again and by early Sunday evening we knew we needed to go to the ER again and so we came up to Children's Hospital.  The first thing they got was a CBC and just by the numbers alone they told us that she had Leukemia. 

It was a hard night and they had to work on our sweet baby girl for a long time once they got her up to the PICU.  They finally got her to a stable point but she was on a ventilator and receiving a blood transfusion. 

We have been in the PICU for 13 days now and Adilene got off the vent on day 10.  She is doing much better and we have hopes to be out of the PICU on day 16.

She has already started chemo and we will be inpatient for the first 28 days (currently on day 12). 

Here is the link to her CaringBridge page once again. We will update it from time to time along with the blog.

Trip to Colorado

Usually my post about our trip to Colorado are so long and picture filled I have to split them up into several different posts.  This time all the pictures that I have came from either Fred's phone or mine. I held Adilene practically the entire trip so I didn't have any hands for the camera.  I am going to do it all in one post so it will probably be a long post.

The kids and I flew out a few days before Fred.  This time we had to buy Adilene a ticket since she just turned 2.  I thought that this would make the flights easier because I knew that we would have an entire row to ourself.  There were about 10 other small children on the flight and so I figured if one of the kids cried they wouldn't be the only one.  However, the kids did great and didn't get upset the entire time.  Adilene sat by herself the whole flight and only laid her head on my lap when she took a short nap.  When we landed in Denver my dad was there to pick us up.  On our way to the valley we stopped and ate Mexican food.  We didn't get to my parents until dark but Hadley and Emerson were there to play with us.  The kids gave hugs and then ran around like crazy. 

The next day the kids and I tried to get use to the time change and we all took several naps throughout the day.  That night Jed and his girls came over again to play.  Jed had to leave because he was on call so his girls spent the night.  The next morning My parents had to go to work and so I had all 4 kids all morning.  We all had such a great time we cooked together and then everyone got a bath.  The kids had so much fun playing together. 

On Saturday we went out to grandma Margaret's house so she could see the kids for a while then I headed back to drop off the kids for a nap and headed to Denver to pick up Fred.  I left a little early to do some shopping but didn't get to Honey Backed Ham before it closed so after I picked up Fred we ended up staying the night.  We got the ham on Sunday and then headed back to the valley. 

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were filled with visiting family, trying to get the kids to nap in the car, and we even fit in a trip to the movie theater, and bowling.  Fred and I got to go see the new Hunger Games movie and my parents took the Kids to the Peanuts movie.  Adilene didn't really have that much fun but Blaiden loved it. We also had to do a little shopping.  I wanted to get all the gifts that needed to be in Colorado so that I didn't have to worry about shipping anything. 

On Thanksgiving we headed up to Creede to spend some time with Fred's family.  Blaiden and Adilene got to play with some cousins that they had never met and we ate a great meal.  Once naptime came we headed back to my parents house for our 2nd dinner.  My side was having dinner at my parents and so we made it just in time to eat again.  The kids ended the night by playing with cousins and having a great time.  Friday we didn't have a vehicle so we stayed at my parents house and rested for most of the day then went into town later that night to finish up some shopping. 

Sunday Fred and I headed up to Denver for the second weekend in a row to go to the Bronco's football game.  Fred's season tickets seats were drawn to go down on the field to help hold the huge United States Flag before the game.  It was so fun and we got to be so close to the players.  Jed and Kaitlyn were also at the game so it was so fun spending a little time with them.  It snowed the entire game but the game was so good that I didn't really get cold until the end of the 4th quarter and in overtime.  The Bronco's won and so Fred was in an especially good mood. 

We had to spend the night so I could take Fred back to the airport.  It was a very relaxing morning on Monday.  We stayed in bed until we knew the roads would be a little more cleared off from the snow, wasted time by shopping, and then I went and dropped Fred off at noon even though his flight didn't leave until 7 so I could get over the pass before it froze. 

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were filled with visiting family more, Blaiden playing with Hadley, picking up kitties from Grandma Margaret, getting a sewing lesson from Granny, more bowling, and packing up to get ready to come home.

Friday we left to Denver after my mom got off work around 2pm.  On our way through we ended up stopping at an ER in springs (I will talk about this in an entirely different post).  After a rough night in a hotel we made it to the airport.  My parents both got passes so that they could go through security with us and waited until we got on the plane.  The flight was perfect, the kids played in their seats for a while then they both took a nap.  Fred was right there to pick us up and bring us home. 

It was a fun trip over all but we were all very happy to be sleeping in our own beds again.  Although Blaiden did ask why I wasn't sleeping with him like I had at G-ma's house.