Pink Party for Mom!

 A lot of you know my mom was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer.  It has been kind of a crazy month for our family.  I thought I would do a little update for those that want to know, but don't see her updates on facebook.  She is receiving treatment at Huntsman in Salt Lake.  We are grateful that she has a good team of doctors helping decide her treatments.  We received the bad news that it was inflammatory, then had some biopsies we thought confirmed it was not.  We were excited about that news, but now we know those tests were wrong, and it is for sure inflammatory.  We are hopeful, and feel confident with her doctors.  The Lord has blessed our family so much, and we appreciate all of your prayers.  She starts her chemo therapy on Monday, the 27th.  It will be a 16 week regiment where she goes in every other week.  She is planning on surgery around late January.  My mom is pretty amazing, and is one tough lady!  We love you mom!

Last week, while my sister was in town helping out, we decided to throw mom a pink chemo kick-off party.  We decorated everything pink, dressed in pink, and ate a dinner full of pink food.  It was a fun way to be together, show some support, and lighten things up.

Our pink table

A completely inappropriate, but really funny cake.

I will post occasional updates throughout her treatment.  We sure would appreciate any extra prayers in her behalf.

Since we've been home..(part 2)

I am just doing a bunch of posts together to try to get caught up.  Things have been a little crazy around here since we have been back in Utah.

Savannah has officially started preschool.  I have been nervous about how well she would do.  She doesn't adjust to new things really well.  I am happy to report though, that there were no tears from Savannah or her mother on the first day of school.

I wish I could say it has stayed that way, but she does have a hard time going on some days.  I am hoping once she realizes that she is going to school no matter what, and that Maxwell and I do not party the whole time she is gone, she will do better.

Our ward had a daddy-daughter camp out, and Savannah was so excited about it!

Uncle Joe and Jersie went along too.  I am so proud of Matt for actually taking some pictures of them.

Her dad taught her all about roasting starbursts instead of marshmallows.  She loved it since she isn't a big fan of roasted marshmallows.  Words can not express how much I love this picture!  I can't look at it without laughing.

The next week, we decided to head up hobble creek canyon to take the kids on a little hike.  It sure is fun with them all, because every little thing is so exciting to them.  We inspected all sorts of rocks, sticks, caterpillars, horse poop, suspicious looking leaves, etc.

I can't believe all of them are actually looking at the camera...well except Ashley, but babies don't count.

These two crack me up.  They are always together!  I have never seen two year olds play so well together.  Our kids are so spoiled to have so many little friends to play with all of the time.

Jaxon was so cute in his little hiking pack. 

Since we've been home....

We have been able to spend a lot of time with family, since we have been back.

All of the cousins came over one night for some dutch oven dinner, and playing in the hot tub. 

It is always a little bit of chaos, when we are all together, but we love it, and the kids love being together.

Over Labor Day, we headed to my hometown for Leamorado Days...of course.  My mom is the mayor now (I know...isn't that cool?), so we had a lot to do, to put things together.  It was a fun day.

I'm pretty sure I have this same picture from last year.  Maxwell is just a little smaller.

This sweet tractor was one of the raffle prizes.  We actually won it this year.  I was so excited!  I have probably only missed a couple of Leamorado Days since I was 4, and this is my first prize to win!

New to the festivities this year, was a little train for the kids to ride.  It was a huge hit.  My kids would have ridden in it all day long!

Maxwell took a little snooze on dad's lap, while he drove the train around.

Our little cowgirl

Matt had convinced Savannah that she wanted to ride the sheep.  He did a good job of it, because when she thought she wasn't going to be able to, she was sobbing.  Low and behold, they decided to let some more kids try, so they ran out there.  Immediately after taking this picture, and right before they let the sheep go, she changed her mind.  I think she had in mind riding a sheep like a horse where you go for a little ride, until you are ready to get off, and the sheep stops to let you off.  It probably didn't help for her to see every other kid that had tried it come walking our of the arena in tears.  (I secretly am glad she didn't ride it, but don't tell my hubby.)

Savannah and Connor, checking out the cows.

Savannah wanted me to take a picture of her snazzy new boots.  She is pretty proud of them.

Last week in Texas

Our last week in Texas, we had a big potluck dinner.  Matt and Darrick decided they needed to have a bunch of craw fish before we left the south.

The boys ate a lot, but there were way too many of them.  Unfortunately, a lot of them had to go to waste.

We also took the kids back to Brazos bend to try to see some alligators one more time.  No luck on this trip.  Just lots of bugs, and some hot, sweaty kids.

Cute Porter is the lucky one.  It is more socially acceptable for him to be naked in public.  Savannah and Max miss their cousins, and will be excited for them to come to Utah soon.

We packed up all of our stuff and started our trip home.  We made pretty good time, but did have a little accident on the way.  Someone cut us off, and we lost control of our car.  We swerved around quite a bit before finally spinning all the way around and stopping in the median facing the wrong way.  It was so scary, and I still don't know how we didn't roll.  We were pulling our car behind us on a dolly.  It swung around and banged up our other car pretty bad, but luckily we were able to keep driving and made it home.

On the way home, we stopped in New Mexico to visit with Britney (Matt's sister) and Jeff.  We couldn't believe how good the weather felt.  Our kids spent a lot of time outside, and loved playing with their cousins.

We were able to be there for baby Sam's blessing.  He is an awfully sweet baby!  Good thing we are having our own soon, because he made us kind of baby hungry.

Savannah loved being able to hold him.  She keeps talking about what a good sister she is going to be.

We are so happy to be home!  We had a lot of fun in Houston, but there is no place like home!