Caden is 6 months old!
This month has been an incredibly hard one for our family. We got a call at the beginning of the month from my 14 year old sister, Brooklyn. She was diagnosed with Leukemia. It was one of the last things I ever thought I would hear on the other end of the phone. When she called, she was laughing and joking around with my mom and my brother and I kept saying, "Brooklyn, what is going on? Just tell me already!" When do I ever get a call from my 14 year old sister?! NEVER! So I knew something was going on. But I thought she was going to tell me something like she stole my hoodie when they were here last month or something dumb like that. She said, "I've been diagnosed with Leukemia. But they're pretty sure they can cure it! It's ok!" AHHHHHH!!!! I started freaking out. Poor Caden was sitting next to me and didn't quite know what to do about his hysterical mother. He would go through this cycle of patting me with his little hand and smiling at me, to crying, to looking at Kari, and then back to trying to console me. I had to hang up with Brooklyn and call her back after I calmed down. My baby sister? Leukemia? Is this real life?! All I knew was I had to get to Utah. Like yesterday. So we immediately started looking at flights going out the next day. We kept running in to errors and it wouldn't go through. That gave me a second to just stop and think for a minute. We talked about it and realized I couldn't do much for her in the hospital. Between Caden and pumping and his naps, it would be chaos. I didn't want to add to the craziness my parents were already having to deal with. So I talked to Brooklyn and she was fine with us waiting a little bit to come out. The semester was over for Kari and he only had research projects and studying to do for qualifying exams this summer, so it was actually great timing. We were able to drive up to Utah and spend over three weeks with our families. It was so nice to be there with my sister. It was also very hard. It's easy to be away and let a couple days go by, thinking about her, of course, but letting my own life take over. When I'm there, it's so hard to think about anything else. It literally breaks my heart. The pressure in the center of my chest is so bad I can hardly breathe sometimes. I think about how I would give anything to take this from her. "I volunteer!" - we watched the Hunger Games the other night ;) "Why?" is a question I have asked over and over. But she is the toughest person I have ever met. It's like she was born to take on this burden, this awful and terrible trial. She has had the best attitude, letting everyone else know she is fine and that she is strong. I have never felt closer to my sister than I do now. She is my hero. She is constantly showing that she will not let the cancer define her. I miss her everyday and count down until we get to go see her again.
My beautiful sister :)
The hospital has an online gift shop where you can send things to patients, so we sent her balloons and a bear.
Caden showing off his cool new trick. He doesn't know how to get to a seated position on his own, but he knows how to stay there. it's adorable!
Being in the sentimental mood that I've been in this month, I found these tickets in my box of who knows what. Tickets to a Jack Johnson concert that I went to with my brother :) Awww the good old days...
Caden loves all food, which is obvious by his size...That's why he has adopted the nickname 'Munch". Here is Munch munching on mum-mums (rice rusks)
Now THIS is a funny story...my eye had been bugging me for a little while. It was irritated, it would get all red, and then it would be fine. But one day, it got REALLY red and it hurt. So I went in to Urgent Care. They FREAKED out, thinking that there was an abrasion or something. They sent me home with an eye patch and eye drops and told me to go to an Ophthalmologist. We went to the Dr. and he told me I just had an eyelash growing in crooked and it was scratching my eye. So a 90 year old man took tweezers to my eye and plucked my eyelash out! Very anti-climactic...
The sign I made for my mom's house
He is a snuggler when he sleeps. Good thing we have a video monitor so we know if he's suffocating, or I would freak out leaving him in there with blankets!
So we made the trip to Utah. Caden was so good in the car. I sat in the back a lot to pump and feed him. I think he really liked having a buddy with him. He would just eat, play with his toys, and sleep when he needed to. It was great!
We stopped at the Fanzz store and came out with a BYU hat...Kari's just lucky he looks so good in blue!
These next pictures are some I found of me when I was little. I think I look a little bit like Caden! So weird!
I just got this one to show off my mother's hairstyle...haha!!
It's pretty strange to think I was once a baby just like Caden!
Laundry basket turned into make-shift play pen. He would spend forever just hanging out in them. He loved it and we weren't going to argue!
Chilling at his cousin's soccer game
Doughnuts are the best
With grandma in the backyard
Ice cream Sunday has been a tradition of my dad's for a while now. The turn out always shocks me. The line goes on forever and the company is great! We were lucky enough to be around for the first one of the summer.
May 22nd was our 2 year anniversary. Kari bought me a beautiful necklace and earrings :) I love you, honey!!
Could we please get a good photo of all of us with Caden actually looking like he likes being part of the family?!
Bah ha ha...Kari helping put the fridge in that we 'forced' his parents to get in their basement...
At church, Caden got a hold of Nana's bag that is obviously not baby-proof...Blue ink mustaches are cool!
We wiped it off a bit before we got a picture, but you can kind of still see the blue smears by the sides of his mouth if you look real close...
My brothers are the bomb. And my dad. They all shaved their heads in support of Brooklyn. I was going to shave mine, too, but luckily Brooklyn told me that wouldn't do her any good and to not be dumb.
So thanks to my awesome sister, I got to keep my hair! Kari was relieved!
We went to the Trout Farm with Kari's family on Memorial Day. It was a blast!
Even Caden had a good time!
That's kind of a smile, right?! Dumb hat and glasses....oh well! We will take what we can get!
I even picked up the fish! Go me :)
This is one of our favorite games. I used to do it to help him calm down when he was crying. But now it's just fun!
See? Blue mustaches are COOL!
We totally went to 9th Grade Lagoon Day with Kari's mom. It was AWESOME!!
He even went on Wicked with us! Good man :)
This was one of the problems of cancer...Brooklyn would get these spouts of energy where she wanted to do something!! Like completely clean out her room of all the crap she didn't want anymore and was sick of looking at. But then she'd get so exhausted that she couldn't finish. This was a loooong project...But it was pretty fun to be a part of :)
Grandpa Dallas and Grandma Holly got this cute jumper for Caden. He LOVES it!!
Playing with cousins at Nana and Grandpa's house
Hanging out with Nana
We went to visit Kari's mission presidents, the Ashby's
We obviously had a great time and had great hosts. We are still in Utah so next month will have more pictures of our trip! :)
