Sparkler fun!

We celebrated with the kids a bit early, ringing in the New Year on East Coast time. :)

Callum's on steroids this week, so he's been a little "off" tonight, unfortunately. He did come out for a bit to play with the sparklers but ended up retiring quite early, I think there was just too much commotion and excitement for him. We all still had a nice time playing and hanging out. :)

While we had wonderful news with Jon's company acquisition, I'd say this year has been a pretty rough one for us. I'm looking forward to a better - and healthier - year in 2015. :)

New Years Party!

Several of us got together for a fun New Years Party at the Jodoin's house tonight. There were actually 10 kids total! But each time we tried taking a picture, one of them was missing! ;-)

And the final picture is of us lovely Mamas of course!

Happy New Year!

Blackout!

We went to the movies earlier today to get out of the house while the cleaners were here. Unfortunately Callum was extreme UNinterested in sitting in the theatre, so he and Jon left to walk around the mall while Logan and I stayed to finish seeing the movie (A Night at the Museum).

We ate a bite afterward then headed home. The weather was cold when we left but it was colder and extremely stormy/windy outside on our way home. We got to the house and several of our decorations had blown over. We got inside and found our UPS (backup batteries) beeping at us. After checking the breakers and talking to neighbors we found out the whole neighborhood (and much of the city) is in a blackout. Power won't be back up for a couple of hours at least. Whee!

So, we pulled out some battery operated Christmas lights from the boys room and are all camping out in the living room, playing games and trying to stay warm! :)

Walking with the Dinosaurs

We surprised the boys Saturday morning with tickets to the show, Walking with Dinosaurs.  And, we met up with the Jodoins, too!  We haven't hung out or seen the Jodoins for MONTHS (due to either family being too sick to hang out, or traveling, or anything in between!), so the boys were THRILLED to be "run into" each together.  ;-)

In fact, I think they sorta wanted to skip seeing the show and head straight to one of our houses to hang out.  Look at this sorry group of boys, who we're TORTURING with a live theatrical show:

I took SEVERAL pics and couldn't get a single one where they were all smiling AND looking at the camera.  These were the best I could get before they got up and walked away.  *sigh*

BUT, once we finally sat down and the boys started to digest what this show really was going to be about, I think they all got pretty excited.

See how Callum's holding his ears?! He does this for any LOUD atmosphere/experience now. :/  We think he was first traumatized by the loud flush of the hospital toilets - but his noise sensitivity seems to have now expanded to all loud things (roller coaster rides, movies, live shows, bands, etc.).  Even though he doesn't like the loud noise, you can see from his smile, he still loves the experience!  :)

We all (adults included) had a fantastic time at the show.  It's amazing what they can do with animatronics and special effects these days!  The dinosaurs were very realistic looking and HUGE!  Even where we were sitting (higher up in the audience), you could still feel how magnificent they were (and, it helped to have an actual person, walking on the stage/narrating the story, for life size comparison)  :)

I snapped a few pics throughout the show....

Logan sat with Robert and the Dads on one end while Jenn and I corralled the younger ones (Callum and Connor), who bounced between our laps and their seats through most of the show.  Callum also pretty much provided his own narration of the show, often repeating whatever the show's narrator had just said, to me.  Because he was holding his ears for most of it, he wasn't very quiet about his story telling.  ;-)

3 TONS Mom!  That one weighs THREE. TONS.

And, I also enjoyed the history lesson that the kids got too, as we walked through time and were introduced to a variety of dinosaurs, and wildlife, specific to that period (I didn't expect it but was pleasantly surprised).  I'm not sure how much of the walk through history they actually absorbed, but it was a nice backdrop to the visual effects we were fed throughout the show.

Callum was KEENLY interested in any battles they showed, like this one.  :)

He also informed (anyone within hearing distance of our seats of course) that his favorite dinosaur was the T-Rex, in case you didn't know.  ;-)

After, we grabbed a late lunch in downtown and then headed over to the Jodoins house to play games and relax.  The boys had a wonderful time and the adults did too!!  It was so nice to see the Jodoin family after so long, and we look forward to hanging out again soon! :)

Impromptu Road Trip

The boys played a new game at the Jodoins last night and fell in love with it - so much that Logan wanted to buy it (with his own money) himself. Jon said ok so they took off to get a starter pack, only to find it it's sold out everywhere and apparently the only one left in a 100 mile radius was in Monterey!

So, we decided to take a quick day trip and hang out in Monterey! ;-)

All done!

Logan finished this massive Lego set, all on his own, earlier this afternoon. 1258 pieces in total - and many are moving pieces - wow!!

Cycle 2 of Maintenance Begins

Today we begin Day 1 of Cycle 2. Our maintenance schedule runs in 16 week cycles; after each 16 weeks we run it all over again. Each cycle is a tad different due to the timing of Callum's chemo appointments but they're basically the same overall.

So today we went in for Vincristine (we'll go again next week too). Callum's counts are great (ANC is 2400) and he's looking good, so we got the all clear to begin. He also had one of his best port accesses ever! Hardly yelped or winced! :)

We've got slightly higher doses of chemo at home (since he's grown), and we'll start his 7 day pulse of steroids today too (yippee), which all means tonight will be a heavy dose of various meds he'll need to take. He's been handling the meds like a champ tho, so I don't anticipate any issues. ;-)

Master Builders

Our day has been filled with building marble mazes, Erector sets and massive Lego castles. And we still have several other building type of toys left to conquer!! It's definitely a Master Builder type of Christmas. :)

Merry Christmas!

Waking up with our Disney mugs while the kids go nuts with new toys! ;-)

For Santa

Cookies, kettle corn, M&M's.... And cash! Yes, Logan decided Santa must need money this year.

*shrug*

Who am I to disagree?! 😜🎅🍪

Heading home

Driving home on I-5, it's a beautiful clear day with rolling green hills! You'd never know we've been in a drought all year. ;-)

We had a great time in Disneyland but the trip felt a little quick - we can't wait to return again someday!

Lounging at the Tiki Bar with a hot cocoa mustache

This must be the life. ;-)

First ride by himself!

There were signs at every ride mentioning 7 years and older could ride the rides alone (but younger needed to be accompanied by an adult). Logan realized this at some point during our trip and decided today he was going to ride alone (it was on The Little Mermaid ride).

Callum seemed just as excited as Logan about this big milestone and commented to me during the ride, "I'm so glad Logan is 7 so that he can ride by himself!" It was pretty darn cute (both of their excitements). :)

Their cuteness is criminal

A Very Merry Unbirthday!

Mickey-shaped Beignets

We're waiting for our Haunted Mansion fast pass time to come up, so we're showing the boys a taste of New Orleans. They're no Cafe du Monde beignets, but the boys still gave a thumbs up. ;-)

Exhausted!

We'll see how early a start we get tomorrow. ;-)

Almost at meltdown status

Woo!

A nice perk

A nice perk about staying on property, is running into some of the characters without the crazy crowds.

We spent the morning at Disneyland but after lunch we slammed into a wall of people. The boys really wanted to go back to the hotel so we figured we'd head back that way and got some shopping in at Downtown Disney (both boys got Disney gift cards for Christmas and Logan got an extra for his birthday) too.

Here the boys are telling Goofy all about the toys they just bought. ;-)

Merry Christmas!

Acting goofy as usual. 🎄🎁

So sassy!

A beautiful day!

Our navigators today

First night of vacation

After our super fun character dinner (where the boys were in awe the whole time, as characters dropped by to say hi), we decided to walk around a little (and ended up going to Downtown Disney), to burn off some of their immense energy.

We didn't get back to the hotel room until about 9:30pm when I remembered oh shit! We have meds to do tonight! (I'll just put it out there that I had wanted to bring one of them with us to dinner but Jon was on my case about how we were already late, not to bother and we'd do it after dinner!) ;-)

So, I quickly gave Callum his first med, and then set the timer for two hours. We all passed out but I woke up to the alarm to give him his chemo just before midnight. Yeesh! First night of vacation and we're practically throwing our routine out the window! ;-)

Character Dinner Time!

We made it! (But JUST barely! See how exhausted I look?!)

We're having dinner at Goofy's kitchen. The boys are beyond excited. ;-)

Grapevine

We're finally at the Grapevine!! Phew!

We had a couple of stops which delayed us some but then we hit (and are still in) some nasty I-5 traffic.

I always feel better, like we're "almost" there, when we get to the Grapevine, even though we still have more driving left to go.

All set!

Just picked up the boys from my parent's house and on the road to Disneyland! Let the craziness begin! ;-)