Jaylie's Birthday Party

Jaylie had been planning her party for months and decided on a Hello Kitty party out at my parents house. They live kind of out in the country on some acreage and the kids love it out there. She invited 14 of her friends and I think 11 came. She was so excited! Her Grandma from Utah flew down and was here for her birthday too.  She had so much fun seeing all her friends! She was very particular about what she wanted at her party. She wanted pizza, strawberries, lemonade, water, and cupcakes and nothing more. The cupcakes had to be white cake with chocolate gnash inside with pink cream cheese frosting :) I let her choose everything she wanted. We got online together and she chose the decorations and everything. I tried to make it exactly how she wanted it. When the kids all got there we ate, played a Hello Kitty game, did a pinata, opened presents, had cupcakes, played outside in the tree house, barn and trampline and did tractor rides. I think all the kids had fun and Jaylie had the best time! Here are some pictures. Oh and Jaylie requested that if the girls had Hello Kitty attire that they wear it :-)

Here are some of the invitations she made. She wanted to do them herself instead of buy them :)

Here are some from the party:

 Eating pizza and strawberries

 Jaylie and Shelly

Hello Kitty game. They tried to get the bow on her head :)

Pinata

 Presents

 Jaylie got so many great presents! She loved them all.  Nana and Papa (my parents) got her a ticket to see Wicked with us. She loves plays and was so excited!

Sparkler candles!

Pink hello kitty cupcakes :)

All the girls eating their cupcakes

Crew loving his

 Playing outside. It was pretty cold that day but they had fun anyways.

 Checking out the horse

 On the tractor ride my Dad took the kids on

 Jaylie loves this hat! It's her favorite and it keeps her so warm, she insisted on wearing it!

  Crew loves this dog Koda so much! Jaylie loves him too and loved him like this when she was little. Breklyn on the other hand is totally scared of him :)

 

Crew did not know what to think of this tire swing, he made the funniest faces the whole time.

  Papa and Crew. You can tell by this picture that Crew gets hurt a lot, he is a crazy little boy!!
 

 
 Jaylie and Aubrey. Aubrey got Jaylie the same black and silver hello kitty shirt she is wearing, but it was the only one that fit Breklyn so we had Breklyn wear it for the party. They are such cute friends.

 Jaylie picked these flowers for me out in the fields at her party, it was so sweet!!

  At the end of the party, Kindra (my lil sis) took some pics with our camera. I thought this was a funny one!

Green Pancakes Poem

My sister in law wrote this and put it on her blog. I balled when I read it for it is so true. Its probably the most important lesson I have learned through this hard trial and I have learned many, that we should be thankful for the days we have with our loved ones  because we never know what tomorrow will bring. She is a great writer unlike me:) She did this post around Thanksgiving, this is what she said:


 This year has been a little different. There have been several experiences this past year that have caused me to realize the importance of truly being grateful. This Thanksgiving morning I have truly felt deep gratitude for many of the blessings the lord has given me. I am thankful for my family and the chance we have to all be together during this holiday and for the fun and good memories we can create together. I am thankful for my husband who sticks by me no matter the situation. I am thankful for my children and the joy they bring to me. I am thankful for good friends who would drop everything to come to my side when I need them. I am thankful for financial stability, my family in Texas, my religion and so much more.
Normally I don't think about what I am going to say at the table until my belly is full but this year I know exactly what I am going to say. This year what I am most grateful for is the health of my children, my husband, and myself.
As many of you know this has been a hard year for C.J.'s family with the diagnosis of our 5 year old niece, Jaylie, and her brain cancer and then with our brand new nephew needing multiple heart surgeries at just a few weeks old. As a mother I can't help but put myself in my sister-in-laws shoes and try to understand what they are feeling as they watch their child struggle. I am infinately more grateful to be able to step out of their shoes and enjoy my children and their health. My emotions have been all over the place as I continue to watch my neice and nephew fight for their lives. I remember the morning after we found out about Jaylie's brain tumor and the possibility of it being cancerous I could not control my feelings. I woke up and just held my children and cried. For whatever reason I felt the need to write those feeling down so that I could remember them years from now. I have only shared what I wrote with one person, my husband, because it was so personal to me. Today C.J. told me he thought I should post what I wrote that morning on the blog. I was hesitant at first but thought it fit with the Thanksgiving spirit and expressed what I am most grateful for. I am not a great writer, I don't proclaim to be, but I enjoy putting my feelings on paper and in this case felt the need to share. So here goes... I called it Green Pancakes because that morning I was supposed to begin writing a very important paper for school but found myself unable to think about anything else besides how grateful I was for all the things that drove me nuts about being a mom. I felt the need to enjoy my children and and the simplicity of our life here on earth. Instead of starting on that paper I made my kids green pancakes and we sat on the floor and laughed and giggled as we ate them together.

Green Pancakes

I made green pancakes today

Simply grateful for one more day

With my sweet and beautiful girls

Ages 2 and 2 months, blue eyes and thick curls


Life is so fragile you never know

When the Lord will say it’s time to go

I am so sorry its taken the experience of one

To realize my blessings and what he has done

He’s given me things I should be grateful for

Life’s little moments, I taken for granted no more


I am so grateful for times I’ve lost my head

So grateful for the crumbs that are in my bed

So grateful for the messes that they make

So grateful for my things that they break

So grateful for tears shed today

So grateful for the price my Lord paid

So grateful that he loved enough to die

My eternal family is what he would buy


So grateful for the stress of each day

So grateful the Lord made it this way

So grateful for the days that they whine

So grateful for just a little more time

So grateful for the sound of their voice

So grateful I was given a choice

To come to this earth and be made a mother

My trials are so easy compared to another


So grateful for their joy and laughter

Their smiles are mine forever after

So grateful for their earthly bodies, I love

Which were sent to me from heaven above

So grateful that our spirits will always live on

Temple ordinances provide an unbreakable bond

So grateful that the Lord has a plan

In time I hope I will understand


So if he must take one of my own

I pray he heals my broken home

So grateful for my eternal family

Together forever I know we’ll live happily


And so with this poem I write today

I thank the Lord for Green pancakes and one more day

No Evidence of Disease!!

We got the results today and there is no sign of cancer in Jaylie's brain or spine!! We are so thankful!! I will do more updates later with details. Thank you for your continued prayers!

MRI tomorrow

I found out this morning that Jaylie is having her MRI in the morning. I usually have a couple weeks notice to mentally prepare myself and Jaylie. She hates the MRI's (mainly bc of having to get an iv in her arm that they tape up real good, and she hates tape) so she had a hard time today when I told her. We usually talk about it for a while leading up to it and we talk about the schedule so she knows when it will be etc but this time we didn't get the chance. I was super mad this morning but the more I think about it the better it is that we didn't have to know before and get scanxiety (scan anxiety). Its nice we are getting it over with. The bad part is that we have to wait a week for the results. We have a neuro onc appointment in one week and we will go over the scans and everything then. It will be nice because Jaylies oncologist and her neuro oncologist will both be at that appointment. One week is long to wait. I'm torn on if I want them calling or not, Im thinking not bc if they call and say we need to come in then I know it won't be good. So I think I'd rather just wait and go in next week. I feel good and at peace about this scan so I think everything will be fine and her scans will look great. I'm not too worried which is nice. For some reason right before her scans Kip and I feel peace and comfort. I know Heavenly Father is helping us and He knows what we need. Jaylie is ok with it now too because she doesn't have to get an iv tomorrow because we left her port accessed from her appointment today. So they will just use her port. They usually are not comfortable using it bc of infection risk and they just don't use the ports enough but they are fine using it tomorrow bc it's already accessed. She was really excited when I told her no iv's! She has her audiogram tomorrow also. We are hoping and praying for no more hearing loss.  Please pray that her scans will go well and will show no sign of cancer and that her hearing will be uneffected by her last chemo dose. Thank you for the prayers, we appreciate them more than you know!