A Little Tired

We have been home for a whole week, it went by pretty fast. Jaylie is doing well and is feeling good. The last few days she has been pretty tired. She fell asleep on the couch Friday, Saturday and today. She will probably continue to feel more tired everyday. She still doesn't complain of feeling sick or bad. She has pretty much been herself, just a lower key version of herself. Her counts were the lowest that they have been throughout this whole journey so far but they were still fairly good, or good for a cancer patient they say. She didn't need a blood transfusion and we are hoping she won't need one this week when she goes in on Thursday. They said she might but we are hoping her counts will be good enough not to have to do that. She did great at her appointment this past week and was so brave getting poked. They had to put a window (clear sticky tape) on over the port to help protect it. She hates the windows so much and is so scared to pull them off. It is hard to see her so scared and to see her having anxiety and having to go through this crap. I hate it. My mom got emotional at this appointment. I don't see her get emotional too often, she is such a strong lady and I am thankful for her. Jaylie loves her coming to all the appointments, she gets so excited to see her. Jaylie really has been amazing and God is amazing. We have seen so many great things happen and have seen miracles in our lives and in Jaylies.

I saw this picture of Jaylie that my brother Scott took back around Christmas time. I have never seen it before, he just posted it on facebook. Her hair was gorgeous and her face was so full and she looked so healthy. My heart broke again seeing it. It is hard to remember the times before the brain tumor. Things are so different now, we are in a completey different world than we were back then and it kills me to think of back then and what could have been. It's just too hard, I don't do it too often because it is so hard. Needless to say I have had a really hard night. I am so thankful for prayer and for a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and knows everyone in my family and who comforts us and gives us what we need to make it through this.

When your child faces cancer, let alone a rare and highly malignant brain cancer, it is more than you can bear, without Jesus. A lot of people say that God will never give you more than you can handle. I know this is more than I can handle. However, I wonder if it could mean that He will give us what we need to handle that which alone we couldn't.My sister in law gave me a little tile decoration for my house that says "The Lord will shape the back to fit the burden placed upon it". I believe this is true and that there is no way i could do this alone. I am so thankful for all of you, for all your help, prayers, support, and love. Without you guys this would be much harder. I know God put you all in our life for a reason. God is good.

New Mexico Trip

We went on a vacation to New Mexico this summer to see my Nana and Papa (my Dad's parents) and my Aunt Becky. They used to live in Houston but now they are in Farmington NM and we miss them. My whole family of 5 and my parents and two younger sibblings all went. We rented a big van and drove through the night to get there. It was so beautiful there and they have an amazing house and gorgeous landscaping. It was so good to see them. The kids loved it too.
Here are some pictures from our trip.

These were in Durango, Colorado. We drove from Farmington up there into the mountains, its pretty close so it was nice. We loved it there, it was beautiful and there was a lot to do.

Playing and rolling in the grass, they had a blast!

 This is a picture of a stage at night. We did a chuckwagon dinner in Durango one night. It was up in the beautiful mountains and we had lots of fun. There was a concert after dinner, I don't remember what their name was, but it was 4 cowboys and they were quite entertaining! The girls loved it!

 Nana and Papa bought them both turquoise rings and bracelets, they are darling!!

 Kip and Kade went golfing with my Uncle Donny one morning.

Beautiful rainbow we saw one morning. I love how the girls both pose the same :)

This is in Durango in the mountains somewhere. It was so fun exploring. This little creek was so pretty, the girls liked finding cool rocks.

On our way back my Dad spotted a teepee. He loves indian stuff and loves teepees. He actually has a real one set up his yard :) We drove back by it and got out and this lady with the super long met us outside our car and was nice enough to show us around. Her and her partner had a house and a teepee and huge garden and lived life sustaining themselves. They are all natural and don't use or do anything that's not natural. She stuck so bad too! It was really neat to see though, I would like to be more like that.

Playing at the playground

Playing in the grass by the playground. It was the most perfect grass and was so soft. The weather was beautiful too.

Playing on the sand hill. My Papa is having a playground built on his property for when the great grandkids come visit and there were just piles of sand that the kids loved.

We found this bull frog and showed it to everyone then let it go.

Circus and Spy Kids

Kip and I took Breklyn and Jaylie to the Barnum and Bailey Circus they had here in Austin. They had never been to a circus before so I figured we should try and go before chemo started. My parents watched Crew that night, he would have been hard to take. He is such a crazy busy boy:) The girls loved seeing the elephants. The acrobatics was amazing and it was actually a super good show. We felt like we were in Vegas. We were very impressed. It was great to have fun together the night before her first chemo round.

A couple months ago during radiation Jaylie got to go to the set of Spy Kids 4 and meet the two kids in the movie, Rowan and Mason. She loved them and we found out they were doing a premiere in Austin (where it was filmed) so we went. My parents, sibblings, Kip, Jaylie and I went. Here we are in front of the sign. We were hoping Jaylie would get to see Rowan and Mason again, but we had a large group and didn't wait around. They called shortely after we left and Kip and Jaylie and I could have gone up to the VIP room to see them, so Jaylie and I were bummed we didn't get to, but it was still fun.

Silly girl :)