Boy, oh boy! How do I possibly sum up a year like we had? Let's just say that we had our plates full!
Ode to 2009:To the world, it was the year that....
-The first black President of the United States took office.
-The King of Pop, Michael Jackson died.
-The Internet conceived yet another social networking site, Twitter.
-The Swine Flu (H1N1) pandemic swept the nation.
-The miracle plane landed on the Hudson River.
-Jon & Kate split up (& traumatized their 8!).
-Even Oprah announced that her show will come to an end.
Pretty big year!
In our little corner of the world, it was a pretty big one too. It looked a lot like this:
I spent much of my time just like this. On the couch- sick baby on one side, fussy baby on the other. It was truly a year that I just had to "let it go." My priorities were not to have an immaculate house, it was not spent doing hobbies and I cut out a lot of the extra stuff so I could focus on what was immediate and necessary. Some days my kids just needed me, so that's all I did. There were several times through the year that Pres. Hinckley's story of "forget yourself and go to work" ran through my head as I thought about all that I wasn't accomplishing. Honestly, I was just trying to survive day to day.
Our kitchen often looked like this. You'd think I'd be embarrassed by it, but under our circumstances, dishes were the least of my concerns. I did what I could do and occasionally others came & helped. It's hard to believe that all in a year, I was pregnant, had a baby, recovered from a C-section, was a nurse to a child with cancer, was exhausted with a fussy/spit uppy baby, served as enrichment leader, turned 30 and experienced one of the busiest schedules of my life with endless Dr. appts, hospital stays, carpools, speech, sports and just keeping up with being a mom and trying to keep a somewhat decent house.
Oh, and how could I forget the dreaded laundry? When Jace saw this picture, he said, "who did that to our laundry room?" It made me feel better that this isn't necessarily typical, but no joke..I have not been caught up with laundry the entire year. I swear a newborns laundry alone is hard enough to keep up with, but you add a sick child's laundry, then add extra potty training laundry, etc. You get the idea...it's basically impossible to keep up with it. Just when I would...someone would spit up, throw up or pee on their sheets, creating yet another load! I'm still working on getting caught up.
Mr. Jace had a pretty big year. He graduated from preschool and started his second year of preschool(after we had the big decision to send him to Kindergarten or not). He started his first year of sports- he did swimming lessons and soccer. He continued with his second year of speech- working on the letter R. At times Jace has had to take a back seat and although it hasn't always been easy for him, he's been very unselfish, understanding and a big help to us with the other two.
Here we go. Where do I ever start with Rylee? She's fought cancer, lost hair and grew hair. Said bye-bye to binky, potty trained and switched to a big girl bed. She got surgery to replace her central line with a port, had a few hospital stays, took medication daily, was visited by the home health nurse weekly, got treatments monthly and spinal taps every 3 months. She got to be part of the Primary Children's Miracle Network telethon and... She got to swim- yay! So thankful for all that's behind us with her.
And our little bubby. Certainly the only thing I could think of for awhile with this kid was how much of this he did. Not to mention all the spit up. Wow! It was not easy. And how can a blame the poor kid- he was not exactly born into the most calm situation. He's been a little high maintenance this year. We started out with blood in his tummy, then finally threw in the towel with nursing
-(thinking something I was producing was making him so sick), then exhausted options trying out 7 different formulas, got no solutions from Dr.'s, so we just endured it. Finally at about 7 or 8 months things got better. And...after an entire year of not sleeping through the night, I'm happy to report that we've just recently gotten a couple nights of sleep. Yay!
But.... to redeem him, Jaden is turning out to be quite the little charmer. We've gone from colic to cute and are appreciating him much more now. He's totally intense and aggressive and full of energy. He's sat up, crawled, walked, gotten teeth, said first words, climbed stairs, ate solids, was blessed and all that other fun first year stuff. It's been quite the ride with him! He's definitely added an extra spark to the year. He has brought an increase of love in our home this year and almost look back thinking that things would have been boring if I took away all the action he has caused. He is so full of it!
I can't leave Justin out. He's managed to hold us all together this year. He is such a supportive husband who has equally shared the challenges of this year. He does whatever it takes. Things were hardest during his busiest season, yet he always balanced both. He's helped me in every way including housework, watching the kids, calming a fussy baby, giving me a break, taking Rylee to the ER, staying nights at the hospital, spending lunch hours helping with kids or appointments, etc. He is an involved dad who takes an active part in playing with the kids, knowing what they've got going on, supporting them, etc. He has been an excellent provider, taken on every financial aspect, has filled out a lot of forms, stays on top of all the bills and insurance stuff and has been there no matter what. I'm so grateful also to have a worthy Priesthood holder in our home- we've needed it quite a few times. I seriously don't know how I'd survive without him. He's also managed to serve as 1st counselor in Young Men's and fulfills all of his duties with that. It really is the busiest time of our life.
For our family, we enjoyed our annual vacation to Bear Lake and Jus and I had fun getaways to Lake Powell with our friends and Las Vegas with ourselves. Much needed! Life should be enjoyed, not just endured.
In our cancer world, I'll never forget all the work that this thing produced this year. Flushing it with saline and heparin every day, cleaning/changing the dressing (shown in picture), covering it for baths, having it restrict Rylee from hot tubs and swimming- what a pain. I don't miss this thing one bit. Getting the port was such a relief and eliminated a ton of work. Good bye central line.
Couldn't forget this one. Here's our little family camped out at Teton Oncology (practically our 2nd home this year). Treatments have just become such a part of our life, especially the first part of the year- we were there monthly, weekly or sometimes daily. I'm so thankful for their good staff who are awesome.
And...even though this is a little graphic, my dad's accident was also a huge part of our chaotic year. So much had happened, I honestly felt a little numb during all of this. We're beyond grateful for the blessings he has received in his recovery. He's come a long way from laying there in the ICU- it really could have gone the other way and I'm so glad it didn't.
Basically it feels like anything that could have happened, did happen this year. We will not miss 2009 at all- it's been our hardest one yet and are glad to put it behind us.
But...despite all that's happened, we're happy to report that we survived it and "Everything is OK." All is well that ends well, right? We are certainly looking forward to a better 2010!
{P.S. This tile was given to us by Justin's sister. The acronym IS OK stands for In Scriptures, On Knees- good reminder to rely on your faith and things really will be okay.}
Well....my heart got pounding just a bit when I turned back on my phone to see a couple missed calls from Jus, with a text message that said, Call me. NOW! You never know what that might mean in our world.
"Ahh! A mirror that attaches at the top, but not the bottom? Give it a good pull and off the wall it comes. I've tried this one a few times."
" I knew this wagon would be good for something." 
Already using the toilet.
"You've got glasses? They're mine!"
I have a Christmas Village that I put up each year, but was considering just not worrying about this year. But I decided that I had to because Jace loves it and looks forward to it each year. After getting it out I even ended up waiting a day to put it up because Jace was having so much fun with them set up on the floor. He knows each little house: the Ski Lodge, the 2 flower shops, the police station, the five & Dime (which he calls the DI) and our new fire station we got last year. I've decided that it's really more for them than me now, so I tend to not get too upset if we end up with a few headless, armless, legless village guys.
This year we shared a little message and treat with our neighbors. We made pretzel hugs, which we love & are so easy for kids to help with. Then we shared a Stories of Jesus advent from the children's Friend. If you're interested here's the link: 
