Merry Christmas to all..............

and to all a good night! What an amazing day! We have had a wonderful day and now we are exhausted. Merry Christmas to you all!

Blessed Beyond Belief

I have no words to tell you how blessed our family feels this holiday season. We have so many amazing friends and family members. Each day something happens in our life, on our front porch, or in our mailbox that reminds us how truly blessed we are.

Let me start my post by saying Jeremy is on what we pray is his final chemo treatment! I went with him on Tuesday for his regular treatment day and we will go early tomorrow morning to get his pump off. He is feeling like he normally does, so he is staying in bed and getting lots of rest. Luckily we worked in Santa's workshop before his treatment, so that is all stowed away! The next steps in Jeremy's treatment won't come until the first of the year. He is scheduled for a colonoscopy January 18, PET/CT scans January 20, and then we meet with Dr. B on January 26 for all results and long term treatment plan.

I titled this post blessed beyond belief because these past few months have definitely been a humbling experience and the holiday season has proved to be no different. I know I have already posted some on this and passed out many thank yous, but I just have to extend another thank you and extend appreciation from our family for all the blessing that we have received. Our tree is full of goodies! We have received meals, gift cards, money, and the list goes on. I have to be honest and tell you that yes this holiday season we knew would be difficult, but after much prayer God has provided. Through our amazing friends, family, strangers, and anonymous people :) our family has truly been blessed. From the bottom of our hearts thank you. On Christmas morning when the boys get up it will be a memory that Jeremy and I will cherish forever.(yes I am crying just so you know ;)

I am little behind on my posting, mainly because we have had a little internet glitch, but thanks to Uncle Bo we are back in business. Which means I now have some catching up to do. I have gotten so much done this week. The boys have been gone since Friday evening. We have never been away from them for more than 2 maybe 3 nights, so it has been very different and very QUIET around our house. On Friday night we met Jeremy's sister, Melanie and the boys went with her and her family for the weekend. They got to celebrate Christmas with Jeremy's family and also spend lots of fun time with their cousins Noah and Mallory. On Sunday morning they met Nana (my mom) and the boys went to my mom's family Christmas and after that they were off to Nana's house. They have been to the park, Chuck E Cheese, 2 movies, and bowling. They really show no signs of wanting to come home.......can't imagine why can you? However since it is Christmas Eve tomorrow we told them they have no choice..........Ian said you know we could stay until Christmas day! I had to put my foot down on that one, although once I told him if he stayed there Santa wouldn't be able to find them he decided it would be in their best interest to come home. So after lunch tomorrow our house will be back in the business of noise! I can honestly say the first few days they were gone I did enjoy the peace and quiet. I wouldn't turn the tv or anything on, I just enjoyed the quiet. However I am ready to hear their feet running across the hardwood floor and the loud MOMMA yells because they need something! Ask me in a few days though and I may have a different answer for you! A big thank you to Nana and Aunt Melanie! These few days of them away has allowed Jeremy to have his last treatment in a nice peaceful environment. It also allowed us to have 2 date nights! I mean we are lucky to get 1 date night, but 2 in a row was so nice!!!!

I know tomorrow will be super busy once the boys get home, but I want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas! May you all have a blessed holiday season.

Pay It Forward

I have no words for the blessings we have received in the past week. I know many people have given to our family and we are so incredibly thankful for all the blessings that have been bestowed upon our family. Receiving is hard especially when you are used to being on the giving end. So many people have made sure that our family is going to have a wonderful Christmas and let me tell you, we are! Our boys are blessed beyond belief. We knew the holidays would not be easy with all that has gone on in the last 6 months, but we have continued to pray about this each and everyday. God has provided for us and answered our prayers in so many different ways. We have been touched by so many people. I just want to say that once we are over this speed bump in our life, we plan to pay it forward. Thank you to all of the amazing people in our life. Some we know exactly who you are and some of you remain anonymous. God is good and we are SO blessed!

Wordless Wednesday

Cousins........no worries in the world!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Well Sunday was Jeremy's 33rd birthday!!!!!! We started the day by going to church and from there we had family pictures done. Not one of Jeremy's favorite things to do, but he agreed. However who knew that it was going to be freezing cold and windy! I mean I know it is winter, but we have had so many mild days and then of course the one day we have family pictures it was miserable. We had a minisession with a great new found friend of mine Brandy(I work with her husband and they are a sweet family) who has Foshe Fotos. She is wonderful and if you need some family photos, she does a great job! I told Brandy if I can just get one good family pic I would be happy. We are going to do a full session next summer when all is done! If there are any pictures with out Carter screaming CHEESE at the top of his lungs, I will share them! He was quite the mess during the whole session. However I bribed with gum, so hoping for one decent one.

Here a few pics of Jeremy's birthday. Carter is obsessed with birthday cake! As soon as he sees any type of cake or desert he starts yelling, "we sing happy birthday NOW". Usually we just please him and sing it! However he knew on this particular day we needed candles! So we sang to daddy, blew out the candles NUMEROUS times, and then Carter stuck his finger right in the middle of the cake!

So after the family pics, we headed to Texas Land and Cattle for Jeremy's birthday dinner. It is so yummy. They have the best smoked sirloin ever! The boys were so well behaved and ate everything on their plates. From there we headed to Hibbett and got Jeremy some new tennis shoes for his birthday present. After that we decided to cruise through Target. We didn't really get anything, just walked and enjoyed all being out together. As we were leaving we decided to have a little treat from Starbucks and the boys had frozen cokes from Target snack bar. Everyone was happy! There was also a small prize for whoever was the best for our family pictures.....as you already know from reading above Ian won that by a landslide. So when we were in Target Ian reminded me that he won the 2 dollars and these wrestling cards conveniently cost 2 dollars, so I had to put my money where my mouth was!

Peppermint Mocha.....YUMMY!

Carter was tuckered out after all that celebrating!

Ok so this is payoff on a wedgie bet! Ian took the Redskins and Jeremy took the Saints. As you can see the Saints won and Ian is fixing to endure his wedgie. Yes I live with 3 boys!!!!!!!!!! That is obvious!

Jeremy is getting his 11th treatment right now. We saw Dr. B last week and got a good report. He said that all Jeremy's level continue to be good. Jeremy is still scheduled for his last chemo the week of Christmas. He will have his pump removed on Christmas Eve. From there Dr. B has put in orders for Jeremy to have a CT scan, PET scan, and colonoscopy the first week of January. After those are all complete we will meet back with Dr. Bradford and discuss results. We are praying for good results! Jeremy is praying that after that appointment he can schedule surgery to have his port taken out!

Thank yous to catch up on:

*Dave and Linnea took us to a wonderful dinner at the Country Club. We enjoyed it and the boys love going there and having dinner with them! Jeremy and I love to have the adult conversation with someone other than each other :)

*Thank you to some very sweet emails we have gotten over the last few weeks. It is so nice hear those constant reminders that you are still praying and cheering Jeremy on.

* I have to thank the Loenneke family for all the FUN times you have given to Ian. He not only has fulfilled his dream of getting to be a walker, but he enjoys spending time with your family so much. We are so blessed that Ian and Jett have become such good friends, which in turn has allowed us to become such good friends and coffee drinkers :)

*Thank you to Brandy for bringing me the new Carrie Underwood cd :) and also for the wonderful dinner and DELICIOUS cookies you brought! You are so sweet and always taking care of us.

*I am sure I am forgetting someone, but it will come to me I promise, maybe in the middle of the night, but I will remember!

Happy Tuesday to you all!!!!

Heaven on a Biscuit

Well here it is our delicious dinner we had on Wednesday night! Ian's dinner of choice.....breakfast. However, Daddy requested chocolate gravy just like his Grandma Dean makes, so out came the cookbook! I have made it a few times, but this time I think I have it mastered! It was so yummy!

Chocolate Gravy Recipe

2 1/4 cups milk

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons Cocoa

2 heaping Tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat milk in saucepan. In bowl mix sugar, cocoa, flour, and salt. Stir in enough milk to make a smooth paste. Pour into warm milk. Cook and stir over moderate heat until thickened. Add butter and vanilla. Ready to serve over biscuits!