Thanksgiving

We did the Turkey Trot this year for Thanksgiving. We walked the 10K and did surprisingly well. Mallory stayed awake the entire time and loved watching all the people and being out celebrating Thanksgiving.

Kyle and Amy came over to enjoy dinner with us and we had so much fun with them. My mom and Bets were there as well but did not get a photo of them.

here are old pics that I did not get around to loading on here last month.......

10 and 11 month (because I am behind)

I know I am so behind and I am so sorry!! This is MJ's 10 month pic from last month! She is finally saying ma-ma! It was all about Da-Da for months but now she says Ma-Ma! Melts my heart everytime!

And then we are current with our 11 month pics from just a couple days ago. She is crawling all over the place. She is pulling herself up on everything and taking the side steps. Today she experimented with letting go while standing and stood on her own for a couple seconds! MJ loves crawling up the slides at the park and tot spot, I let her be the bad influence on the other kids because she loves it so much. Once she reaches the top she is so very proud of herself I try to teach her the appropriate usage of the equipment but finding other uses is so much more entertaining. She is getting a couple more top front teeth which is causing her to get more interested in actual food versus baby food. Oh and she loves music. Even a tv commercial with music she will stop in her tracks and start dancing. She has a little bounce move and claps at the end to show her appreciation for the tunes! She also blows kisses, she puts her fist up to her mouth and says muah! so cute!!!!

I thank God every day for blessing us with MJ! I can not believe it has almost been a year since we became a family of 3! She teaches me so much each and every day! She is our whole heart and we fall more and more in love with her with each second. She will never know how much she has helped me throughout my whole fight with cancer, I appreciate her teaching me not to sweat the small stuff life is way to short! I appreciate every second I have with her even when she pushes my patience with trying to establish her independence! I hope all is well with everyone and we appreciate you checking in on us! xo~G, J and MJ

happenings lately

A couple of weeks ago Justin had to work down in San Antonio so MJ and I tagged along. We had a wonderful time for our first family vacation. Mallory and I did all the touristy stuff during the week while Justin was working. This is us on the riverwalk at dinner one night.

We went to a park Hemisfair Park found a swing for her and they had a big wooden play structure that was pretty neat.
Mallory and I walked the Botanical Garden one morning before it got too hot and it was beautiful. She made it about half way through before passing out!

The Children's Museum has a tot center designated for 0-36 month olds. She loved it and finally got brave enough to climb on the equipment towards the end, but in the beginning she just likes to sit and people watch like her momma! We have been going to Gymboree play and learn classes, they have these balls (in the picture below) there that she absolutely loves. We even bought some for her thinking then they might not be that big of a deal then once class rolls around but oh no! She gets a death grip on the ball and carries it around with her the entire time. Oh and yes they had them at the Children's museum so of course we had to tote that around the entire time! Too funny!

Finally posting her 9 month pics and we will be taking the 10 month ones next week! Wow time flies like crazy! It is getting harder and harder to take her pics each month as she gets more and more mobile. As you can see she got bored with me in no time and moved on checking out the books on the table!

If you can see she has 2 teeth on the bottom! She has been chewing her fingers like crazy so I think more are moving and on there way! She is getting better each day with finger foods. It is amazing how she has grown into this little person and out of being a baby (even though she will always be our baby)!! Hope all is well with everyone and thank you for checking in on us! I am continuing to get better each day, the hardest part for me is the obvious appearance difference and the chemo brain. The chemo brain is residual from the chemo and means I have a foggy feeling memory and it is hard to concentrate on things. I hope things will just continue to get better with each day. All our love~G, J and MJ

enjoying a normal life!

It seems like it has been a lot longer than a couple of weeks since I got cleared from my doctor. We have been busy enjoying time being out of the house! My mom and I celebrated me having a good report from my doctor at the end of June by taking MJ to the aquarium downtown for lunch. She loved looking at the huge tank watching all the fish, we also went on the shark train after lunch which was pretty cool. I have taken MJ to a play and music class that is with other babies her age which was so fun seeing her play! She loved all the songs and games they do and I look forward to each class for her. We have been enjoying our pool at the apartment we float in the big part together and they have a 6 inch area that she crawls around in and splashes.
This last weekend we went to the circus. MJ loved it and clapped for all the performers.

Here is MJ's 8 months pics, it is getting harder and harder to take good pics of her now that she is constantly on the move! She has mastered crawling and is now pulling up on everything to stand. She loves all fruits and is skeptical of veggies and other dinner meals. It is amazing how much she is changing and becoming a little girl and growing out of our little baby!!! Happens way too fast!
But I have been feeling good. I still have a bit of a foggy head "chemo brain" is what they call it and I get tired but pretend like I am not! I hope that we can spend time with you all soon! All our love!!!!

Hooray!

Hooray, I made it through all 6 cycles of chemo! In the beginning June seemed so far away and here it is we made it! The end of this journey is just a little over a week away- deep breath!! I am so excited to continue to feel better and not have to struggle to find the energy to do every day tasks like brushing my teeth without becoming winded. Mallory started crawling today, she waited until I am feeling better and am able to chase her! I want everyone to know we could not have made it through this without everyone of you. Your love, support, prayers, encouraging cards and words, care giving to myself and Mallory either planned in advance or last minute, countless rides, and loving company at the big MD Anderson during chemo has made this journey possible. My heart melts thinking about all of our friends and family that stepped up to help us, we are forever grateful for you!!!!

This week

The Ritz's sent us an Easter basket this week that had these Easter bunny ears in there! Too cute! We are very excited for MJ's first Easter!:)




My numbers are on the rise and that always makes me feel so much better as the chance for transfusions and ER visits decreases. I am so happy when this third week comes up. Thank you all so much for your continued thoughts and prayers, I could not be this strong without your support and prayers. I appreciate each of you so very much! Mallory has been so much fun this week! She has been a rollie pollie all over the place- you set her down on her back and she is off before you can even snap a good pic of the the action! Our tummy time has turned into roll sessions, she will be crawling in no time! She also got her first taste of rice cereal this past weekend- she was not a big fan at first, but today she ate the whole serving! She is so stinking cute eating- she grabs the spoon and slurps it off the spoon! On Saturday we went driving looking for bluebonnets but there were none to be found! It is so dry here I guess they did not survive the drought. We did the drive up 290 to Brenham and then over to the I10 back down to Houston and saw none the entire trip. I was looking forward to getting cute pics of MJ with the flowers but maybe next year! On Sunday we drove down to Galveston to check out the beach. Aunt Janelle was here this past week and wanted to see it so we took her down there. We were not prepared to hang out on the beach we just found a secluded spot to park and walk around a little bit. It was super windy but super nice! Now I am super excited to take MJ there when chemo is all done and enjoy a weekend down there!:)

day by day

I hate day 1-16, each day is so unexpected on how I will feel and what I will be able to do. I hate being so debilitated and worthless. It is either the chemo itself that makes me sick or the numbers taking a dive to nothing that makes me exhausted and scared of every germ. I long for the third week day 17-20 where I feel "normal". I hate day 21 where I spend the day up at the hospital doing tests and meeting with the doctor preparing for the next cycle again scared out of my mind. I cry just because I feel so helpless to this disease and hate that I have absolutely no control on what this disease does to me. I long to be able to take a shower- a real shower with no shrink wrap on my body and water being able to run down without being hand held stream. I plan on taking so many when this is over and being in there until there is no more hot water left! I am still bitter about being forced to quit breast feeding and resent the fact that it might not ever happen again. I hate wearing a hat all of the time but my bald head is a bit alarming and I do not want to make others feel uncomfortable. I hate that I re-loose my hair with each cycle and long for the end where I can just watch it grow. I long for a glass of wine to take the edge off and just relax already!

weekend happenings

Mallory is now taking a binky! yes we are way late at this but she finally likes the binky. She used to act like we were gagging her anytime we tried to give it to her and she was not the least bit interested in that thing. Now she loves that thing. Justin is not very stoked about this because he does not want to deal with taking it away from her but I love that she can soothe herself with it for now.

She takes it out and is able to get it back in sometimes but most of the time it gets thrown around when she plays that game.

We got to go to the zoo Saturday morning, the first Saturday of every month they open early for zoo members. It was nice to walk around before too many people got there. We sported MJ in the baby bjorn, she fell asleep in it an hour into our morning but did not take too long of a nap to miss anything! I was worried about her getting too much sun so I lathered her in sunscreen but it ended up being a foggy morning so worried for nothing! We stayed at the zoo for a few hours seeing all the animals waking up and being released from there sleeping dens. We then went to a Mexican food restaurant by my mom's house for lunch that we have been saying we wanted to check out for years now and finally did that! It was ok ,but I do not think I want to go back there I prefer other ones over that one! It was such a nice day getting out and about its funny I will even "forget" I am sick on these good days. But I get the reminder with the CVC in place and taking temp and doing mouth rinses four times a day. Justin and I even got to go out on a hot date Saturday night to the theater! What a treat! Sunday we all went to church together and then went out to lunch. It was a great weekend and I love that I got to get out and enjoy it with my family!




I am getting anxious as I approach the third cycle in just a couple of days. I think my anxious energy comes from me just being ready to be done already. Just about on the downward slope though- almost half way there. I hate that the actual treatment days are so debilitating! But I am so thankful for our family and friends that fill in for me taking care of MJ without missing a beat while I am worthless during treatment. I have to do a CT scan and chest xray this time before the third cycle to check the areas in my lungs for any changes so I sure hope that goes alright. Thank you for checking in on us and your continued prayers throughout this. I keep giving all my worries to God, I know he is taking care of all this but I can not help being scared! Deep breaths, just one day at a time! xoxo~G