Rylee completed her first year of preschool! At the end of the year, they celebrated with an open house for all of the families. It was a pajama party for all of the kids.
This is her and one of her teachers, Miss Jenny.
And her teacher, Miss April
And also Miss Dawn.
Her teachers were great and Rylee had a great experience. I was so pleased with all that she learned and the fun projects and activities they got to do. We are just pleased as punch to see Rylee doing these really normal things. We're grateful, really.
She went with such a fun group. 5 little girls from our neighborhood all carpooled and went to school together. (Rylee, Annie, Ella, Candice and Kylie). This is Candice, Rylee and Ella posing in their jammies.
They served Ice Cream Sundae's, which Jace and Jaden thouroughly enjoyed as well. It's so fun for the siblings to come along and be part of the preschooler's little world for a bit.
They showed a darling slide show of the year's activities at the end. It was so fun to get a glimpse at Rylee at school- I'm so glad they did this. It's fun to see your child in their own zone, without you. Great perspective! I got a little teary-eyed through it. Just feels good to have her at this point. When she started in the fall, she was still in treatment and I wondered if I was pushing things to have her go to preschool. Within the first few weeks, her teacher called me and said I better come pick her up. She was not feeling well and had went over to the bean bag and curled up in a little ball and fell asleep. She was out when I got there. I went and got her and cried as I carried her out to the car. Normal just felt so out of reach-it seemed like it was too much, too soon. You just ache for them to feel like all the other healthy, thriving children who are enjoying the preschool activities. But...I just decided to take it a day at a time, knowing that she might miss a lot or I may very well have to go pick her up early every day. And guess what? It only happend that one time and otherwise, she did thrive. It was a wonderful experience for her. She learned to write her name. She had fun with her friends. She went on a field trip to a farm. What more could I ask for?
She has worked really hard this year. In addition to treatment and preschool, she did speech therapy 4 days a week. She was burned out by the end of the school year, so we're having a break for the summer, but she has come so far. And we are so proud of her and so glad that we got to go to her preschool open house. We're 7 months post treatment and things are looking really good! She just has to get monthly blood work to make sure nothing suspicious in creeping back in, but so far, so good. We have arrived....back to "normal".
Does it get any better than lounging around in the hammock on a lovely summer night? 
His outlook is not great. Statistics say a lot (life expectancy anywhere from 2-5 years with chemo). However, I know that faith is often able to tell a whole different story. Right now my dad is trying to heal and recover enough to be able to start chemotherapy. He should be good to go in a few weeks. His regimine will be to get accessed and start pre-meds at the office on a Monday, then be sent home with a chemo pump that will distribute the chemo throughout a 48 hour period (so he will be continuosly attached to the pump), he will then return to the office on Wednesday to get de-accessed (from his port inserted into his chest- just like Rylee has) and turn the pump in. He will then have the rest of the week off (but not really, because he'll be dealing with the effects of the chemo on his days "off" the pump) and do it all again the next Monday. This will be a two week cycle per month. 
As you do the lap, everyone there claps and cheers for all of the survivors and families/caretakers, which is nice because it's a very taxing trial. It takes a lot of sacrifice and endurance and some encouragment is nice sometimes. It was an emotional moment for me because it truly encomplassed how it feels to go through something like this. It's like this load on your back that you carry around with you and even though it gets very heavy at times, you keep going because it's not an option to just drop the load and walk away without it. The load can never be dropped, only eased and lifted by those willing to help, love and serve you. 
Jaden came in the middle of it....I don't blame him for screaming his guts out, I felt the same way! Two years has already passed though? 
And now here he is- all grown up. The cutest 'lil rascal you'll ever know. 
He is a funny little guy. He says stuff like "Zooey Mama!" 
Seems like we've been through about every "phase" with him- the climbing on top of phase.
The pulling things out phase
The putting things down the vents phase.
The dumping phase. 
The climbing inside phase.
It was wonderful. Pure paradise. A dream vacation.
It finally happened- I left the United States of America for the first time in my life! Yahoo! Finally got that first stamp on my passport that's been sitting lonely in our cupboard, waiting for an adventure. Sad it had to miss Israel, wondering why I don't get away more often. It's one of those "seasons" of life things, I guess.
Justin has some good perks to his job. Required to get continuing education each year turns out to be a pretty good perk- especially when there's always so many fun places to choose from. This time we chose Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico (about 15 minutes from Puerto Vallarta). We spent a few fabulous days there back in October. 
We stayed at an all-inclusive resort called Vallarta Palace. And a palace it was...total VIP treatment and completely relaxing! When we arrived, they handed us a moist towel to relieve ourselves from the heat. Then they handed me a flower and gave us both a refreshing drink. I've never had such a warm greeting. :)
When Jus was slaving away in classes, I got to sit poolside, reading my gossip magazines and books, completely uninteruppted, soaking in the sun and sucking up all of my new-found freedom. Loved every minute. 
Especially when the pool waiter would come around and offer me a drink or one of these yummy fruit cups. It's nice to be waited on for a change. I don't know my way around drinks, but a friend had recommended I try a Miami Vice (virgin, of course) and turns out, they are pretty darn good. But...nothing beats ice water and sunshine!
Each night, the resort would host some type of show or activity. One night we attended this Mexican Circus, which was based around Halloween (since it was the week of Halloween). It had acrobats and a contortionist and this guy (who was a Mexican clown apparently) who did this bazar act with this puppet lady. A little unusual, yet pretty entertaining.
There were 5 different resaurants at the resort that you could choose to eat at. It was all-inclusive, so basically you could have whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted it. Although hard to not over-indulge, I loved the concept. Funny how cost or fear of not liking something that you paid for holds you back from trying new things sometimes. I liked trying stuff that I never had before because I had nothing to loose, if I didn't like it, I could always order somehing else. Fun to be so uninhibited.
Look how cute some of the meals (or dessert in this case) were prepared. It hardly makes you want to eat it. 
Of course, we spent some time on the beautiful beach. I love the Ocean- so soothing. 
We also spent some time in Puerto Vallarta. Loved seeing the culture and art there. Love all the bright colors
And of course the shopping. "How much you want to pay?" "It's nice, isn't it." I'm not one for knick-knacks, but we found some fun stuff for the kids and a hammock that I'm so excited to put in my yard this summer. There were like 8 year old little kids working in these shops!
Although we were spoiled enough at the resort, we did venture off for some real adventure as well. 
The zip line was a blast. Beautiful view from the top of the jungle.
Our guides were so fun and let Justin do some fun stuff- like Superman and going upside down! Ahhh- he was screaming like a girl the whole way across. So glad we got to do this.
Another adventure was going to this water park and experiencing Mexican water slides. Let's just say...they don't meet U.S regulations. Oh my goodness. This one behind us was made of pure concrete and was a total death ride. Such a thrill though. Jus & I were having so much fun and laughed the whole way down. They had this one slide that was like a toilet bowl- Justin came out with a completely scratched up back and I felt like I was going to drown when I got "flushed."
Oh...and a sweet kiss for Justin. Our kids can't get enough of this picture- they think it's so funny. 
He said that a boy in his class had given it to him and said he could keep it if Jace would be his friend.
