Cancer Free 5 years

I went to my 6 month check up with my Oncologist this last week.  It means I've been Cancer free for 5 years.  5 Years in the cancer world is a big deal.  It means the chances of my cancer coming back at this point is a fraction of a percentage.  I thought I was going to have to get a final CT scan but Dr. Harker thought every thing looked so good that there was no point.  I wasn't going to argue with him, scans are never fun and cause a lot of what ifs to creep into my mind (although a few years back I did like the scans only because it gave me peace of mind that there wasn't anything there.)

I don't have to go back now for a year!!!  The bad news of this visit is Dr. Harker told me he is retiring next year so this would be my last appointment with him.  I am happy for him but I felt a little sad.  He has been so amazing to me and especially my mom most recently with her treatments.  So I'll go see another Oncologist next year and once a year for up to 10 years (5 more years.)  As he left he gave me a big hug and I felt a little emotional.  Who knew 5 1/2 years ago that I would be sad to say good-bye to my Oncologist.

I posted this on Instagram that day:  "The changes that 5 years brings.  So blessed and happy to be cancer free for 5 years."  That really sums it up.  I never thought that 5 1/2 years after being diagnosed that I would be married, healthy and have 3 beautiful children.  I really am so blessed.

40 is the new 20....right?

I'm behind...3 kids, leaves no time for the computer.  This post has taken me a long time and I have so many more to go.  Maybe I can get one done a night this week...we'll see.

So I turned 40.  I'm kind of in denial that I'm 40, cuz I don't feel 40.  But it's true, I'm 40.  I had a great birthday so bear with me here as I recount my 40th birthday.

My sister Christy and her daughter Avery came to town for the weekend.  So Friday morning I went over to my parents and had my favorite hashbrowns and eggs for breakfast courtesy of my dad.  I was presented with a pre-birthday gift.  This shirt...

Lucky me I got to wear it to dinner that night with my whole family.  We went to Brick Oven with the adults, and a couple of cute newborns.  It was a fun dinner and fun to get together and not have to feed and watch the girls.  My sister in law babysat the girls and had a great night.

The morning of my birthday was busy, we were in a hurry to get up to Logan for my niece Kayla's baptism and Landon's blessing.  Kayla and I share a birthday so it was fun to see her on her birthday and she got to be baptized on her actual birthday as well.  It was a fun morning.  After the baptism and blessing we went to the park for lunch which was a lot of fun.

Shane and I didn't stay that long because he had arranged a day and night out for just us without kids.  I left all 3 kids (yes even Jaron who wasn't quite 6 weeks) with my family.  It was a whole family effort but mostly I put my mom in charge of the girls and Christy was in charge of Jaron.  They had a great time and the girls played with Avery and Abbey all night and the next morning.  They even played 'school' with them.  Jaron slept in Christy's room and gratefully that week he started stretching out his sleep so he ended up sleeping from a little after midnight until 8am.  Thank you Christy and mom and everyone else that helped. It made my night so much easier that I didn't have to worry about them.

So for my birthday Shane got me a nice new camera that I've been wanting for a long time.  My camera is so old and my phone doesn't cut it at times.  It's been fun practicing on it and taking new pictures.  Don't expect anything great but hopefully the quality gets a little better.

Shane also surprised me with 6th row tickets to the BYU vs. Texas game.  I was so surprised, I had mentioned that I wanted to go to a BYU game but figured we couldn't go cuz the Texas game was pretty much sold out and was a big game since Texas was ranked 15th.  It was such a crazy night.  The game got rain delayed for a crazy amount of rain and we sat in the car for 2 hours.  Then I was just hoping the game would be close even if we didn't win.  Well it was such a good game and we won!!!  The crowd was so loud and into the game and made it so fun especially on the 6th row.  It was been years since I've been to a BYU Football game. After the game we had reservations at the Homestead in Midway.  Their beds were super comfy and checkout wasn't until noon...an added bonus.  So it was nice to sleep in and relax.

That next week Brigitte made me lunch and my favorite Rolo cookies and so the celebrations continued well into the next week, which is just the way I like it.

So turning 40 wasn't so bad after all.  In fact, it was pretty fun and everyone really made it a special and fun weekend for me.

Photo shoot with 2 year olds

So as I mentioned earlier, I took the girls and Jaron to Fotofly here in Draper to get some pictures taken.  I knew I shouldn't have had high expectations with 2 year olds but the session itself turned into a nightmare.  I wanted to get some pictures of the girls together and then all 3 kids together and that did not happen.  Luckily we did get a few cute head shots of the girls and a few of Jaron by himself but I was very disappointed.  The girls were so clingy and would not pose of any picture of any sort.  At the end I just gave up and took what we did get.

Here are some...you can see how desperate I was when I got out the fruit snacks!

I thought the head shots turned out cute of the girls so I ended printing a picture of each kid on a canvas print and we just got them back and hung them up in our family room.  I love that wall and looking at the cute pictures of each of them.  When Shane hung them up my first comment was 'wow, we have a lot of kids all of the sudden!'  Here are the pictures we used for the canvas prints and then a picture of them hanging up in our family room.

Newborn Pictures

We had a few different newborn pictures taken of Jaron that I wanted to share.  We had the photographer at the hospital come in and take some.  Then we went to Fotofly with the girls the week after he was born and got a few cute ones.  And then I took a few myself one day just for fun and thought some of them turned out really cute.  So here are Jaron's newborn pictures.

One Month

Jaron is one month!  I would like to say I can't believe it's already been a month but really, it feels like he's been in our family a lot longer already.  He fits right in and we've all been adjusting well.

Here are some things about Jaron at one month:

• Eats 4 oz every 4 hours and has been since he was 2 weeks old.  Even the doctor was surprised he eats that much and keeps it down.
• Has not been the best sleeper or schedule keeper.  I can only compare him to the girls and my girls were on a perfect schedule from day 1 and I can't get him on a schedule or even napping that well.  It just varies day to day.  I'm trying to be patient but he likes to fuss and squirm and wake up at any time during his naps.  I've tried lots of different things and so far nothing is really helping.  It might be that he has 2 sisters that do NOT know what shhh or please whisper means...
• He's been doing pretty good at night.  He'll go 4-5 hour stretches between feedings.  The hardest part is once you feed him he likes to stay awake for a while.  I shut out the lights completely except for a small hall light and that seems to be working better the last few nights.
• At his 2 week dr. appt. he weighed 8lbs 6oz.  So quite a good weight gain in just 2 weeks.
• The girls are obsessed with him.  They want to hold him touch him and kiss him constantly.  It's almost a little too smothering but I try to let them so they feel involved and love him.
• Is just as cute as can be and I love to just sit and talk to him when I get a few minutes.
• Smiled at me when he was a week old a couple times and has started smiling more regularly to me talking to him just in the last couple days.
• Has really strong head control.  When I'm burping him, he many times will pick not only his head up off my shoulder but his whole body and then slams it down again.
• Shane was doing tummy time with him and he rolled over from his tummy to his back a couple times.  We even got it on video.  He isn't doing it on any normal basis but was fun to see him do that already.

$2 Tuesdays

So I did it... I went somewhere by myself, with all 3 kids.  Brigitte and I had this brilliant idea to go to 2 dollar Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point this week.  I knew it was going to be crowded so at least I was mentally prepared.  I took Jaron in his stroller so I could keep him covered and the girls just walked.

It was super crowded just like I thought.  I don't think I've ever seen so many strollers in one place.  We went to the dinosaur museum.  I had never walked through there so it was pretty fun.  The girls didn't really care about the dinosaurs but liked some of the exhibits and especially the hands on activities they had for them.  Towards the end I could tell the girls had enough so we went to leave and had to walk through the most crowded crazy part.  I was holding Aria, pushing Jaron and told Siena to follow me.  I walked 10 steps turned around and couldn't see Siena.  So I started walking backwards looking for her only to find her holding onto the pants of some other lady.  I think she thought she was holding on to me, lol.  I could see the lady looking around like, whose child is this?  Then as we left I told the girls to follow me down the sidewalk only to walk 5 steps and see Aria already in the middle of the parking lot.  So it was a little crazy but I was proud of myself for going out with all 3.  However, I don't know how often I'll really do that.

Brigitte took a picture of all of us out for the first time...Jaron looks thrilled don't you think?  He was ready to be home with a bottle in his mouth.  Or was in impersonating the dinosaurs??

The J-LO's

As you know from pictures of my whole pregnancy, my sister and sister in law were both pregnant right along with me.  We were only 9 days apart in due dates between the 3 of us.  Well since I had my c-section scheduled, Jaron was born a few days early.  I thought my sister in law, Whitney would be right behind me but to all of our surprise she ended up being a week late.  My sister, Lori, was waiting patiently for her husband to get back from his internship and ended up going into labor 5 hours after he walked in the door. (hello perfect timing.)  So, Jaron was born 2 weeks before his cousins and Landon and Owen were born on the same day!

My family has nick named the babies to J-LO's because in order of birth, their initials are J L O.  I think it's kind of cute.

So, here are the J-LO's!