Maylin and Scotty

Many of you have been praying for my nephew Scotty over the past year. For those of you who don't know, he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma cancer when he was just a few days old, and he started chemo when he was 6 months old. He is now almost 18 months old and he just competed his 13 round. Because of chemo and his high risk of infection, we have not been able to see him or his big sister, Maylin, in over a year. We have missed them so much! Ronnie and Maylin adore each other and they are such good friends so it has been hard to be away for so long. The good news though is that the latest tests are showing that the remaining tumors may be dead (that is not the official terminology but you get the point). Scotty is taking a break from treatment for 2 months and then will be retested to see if the tumors have changed at all. No change= he no longer has cancer and he is finished with treatment. Tumors grow again= he will have to start an even more aggressive treatment since his body is no longer responding to the old chemo. Please, please pray that the cancer will be gone!

You can read more about him and his fight against Neuroblastoma cancer at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/babyscotty

Since he is taking a break from chemo we were able to see him. We had so much fun with them, and the kids were in heaven. They were all going 100 mph every time they were together, they were just so excited to see each other. While they were here, we had to a make a little trip to the urgent care center where my sister, Julia, ended up meeting a fireman that invited the kids to tour the fire station. He had a couple of small kids of his own and he was really touched by Scotty's story, so he wanted to meet him and let him see the fire trucks. Ronnie loved seeing where the firemen ate and slept, although he fussed a little when I told him he couldn't spend the night there. Apparently he had already picked out which bed was going to be his! Thank you so much fireman Nick for your hospitality and for taking time to love on a sweet little boy. You have touched our family more than you know.

The big update

So not really the BIG update because there is really nothing big to update you on. However, I have lots of small updates and pictures to share that all add up to a big update. Here are a few pics to catch you up to speed since the last time I posted FOREVER AGO...

Ethan's first haircut

and his first lollipop... a sweet reward for sitting relatively still

Our first carrot at the garden... so what if it is a little dinky, it's ours!

My sweet little boy had a minor procedure at the beginning of the month. Here he is waiting to go back to the operating room. Poor thing couldn't eat for 12 hours before and his surgery was at 12:30 in the afternoon- he was starving! We just tried to keep him occupied and entertained so that he wouldn't think about it too much.

The big snowstorm

The boys had a ton of fun playing in the snow! Little did we know that we were about to lose power for the next four days, have a window broken by a branch that fell from the heavy snow, and that we would lose the majority of the food in both of our refrigerators. The funny thing was that we had already planned to go skiing that weekend, so we were driving out of town while it was pouring snow to go to a place with snow. Maybe I could add another verse to Alanis Morissette's song, isn't it ironic? Or not. At least the roads were wide open because no one else was crazy enough to be out driving in it!

About to hit the slopes... notice the lack of children with us. Yes, they were with their Grampy and Gramee. We had a blast!

So there you have it. Our month in a nutshell.