Life is going very nicely.  Cole, Taleena and Aspen were living with us until yesterday.  I will honestly say I will miss them.  It was good to have them here and it was especially great to get to love on Aspen.  She's a cutie.  Cole and Taleena were very helpful while they were here.  Cole and Daniel helped me prepare a spot for an herb garden.  Then Cole and I planted the herb garden while Taleena made a delicious dinner.  

Yesterday they moved into their apartment.  I know they were so excited to be able to get all their things out of storage and get back to their "pre-cancer" life!  Thanks to Duke, Kurtis, Daniel and Andrew Christensen they got everything moved.  The girls helped Taleena clean and get a few things organized.

Cole and Aspen had colds coming on and today when I called Cole didn't sound too great.  He probably overdid it yesterday.  Hopefully the colds will not last long.

I posted on Facebook the news about Cole and just remembered for those of you not on Facebook I needed to tell you the wonderful news.  Cole's cancer is officially in REMISSION!!! We are feeling very happy and blessed!   Cole's platelets were low so he needed a transfusion so they will leave his port in for two weeks and then he will get it out.  He is excited to get that out.  Then the first part of July sometime Cole, Taleena and Aspen will move back to Cedar... oh happy day!

I was talking to Cole yesterday and his appointment is on Tuesday afternoon.

Tomorrow is the big day.  Cole has his appointment with his doctor.  He will find out the results of all the tests.  We feel very confident that all will be well!  I will post again soon.
Have a great day.

Hello Everyone,
It has been awhile I know.  Life was crazy busy there for awhile, going to graduations and getting all my Kindergarten end of year reports finished up!  Whew, sure glad those reports are finished.  But is was also good to see the amazing progress each student made.  It's hard to let them move on to 1st grade.  I'll be talking with each of their 1st grade teachers to make sure they take good care of them.

Erika's graduations went well.  The first one was Success Academy and then SUU (associate degree) then CVHS and then Seminary Graduation.  She spoke at the seminary graduation and did a great job. The day after the Success Graduation Erika and a group of friends headed to the St. George Temple!  What an awesome group of kids.  That's how they wanted to celebrate and they had a good day doing baptisms.

Cole's last week of chemo was June 3rd - 7th!!!!  He called me the first of the week and asked if I wanted to come to his last few sessions.  Addy, Kaitlyn and I headed up there on Thursday and met him, Taleena and Aspen at the hospital.  Thursday went well.  Friday was the emotional day.  Cole and I drove together and then a little later Taleena, Addy, Kaitlyn and Aspen came.  Cole and I had a little time to talk.  One of  our close family friends is going through chemo again and we were talking how hard it is for him to go to the hospital because it makes him very emotional.  Cole said he has been there.  There was a period of time where he would also feel those same emotions.  As he would get close to the hospital knowing he was going to have another treatment  he would literally sob the rest of the way and try to get control as he walked from the jeep to the front doors of the hospital.

As Cole and I sat there getting him hooked up to the chemo for the LAST time I could not help but cry.  I looked around and some patients were there for the first time. I overheard the nurse talking to a woman and explaining what was going to happen.  Her daughter sat there and listened.  I later talked to her for a minute and let her know it will someday be her last day like my son's .  She said that will be a day to celebrate.  We hugged and she went back to be with her Mom and me with Cole.  There were other patients that I could tell were in the hardest part of their treatments,  so sick and weak.   I remembered seeing Cole like that.  And feeling so blessed that he was getting strong again and looking very good I may add!  It was an emotional day.  I told Cole I didn't know why I was being such a cry baby.  He just smiled.  He said, "you have had the emotional battle and I have had the physical one".  I know he and Taleena have had the emotional one as well but he has literally fought for his life.  He is winning the battle, he is  kicking cancers butt!!!

I called and had the rest of the family come up to celebrate.  They were not able to be there when Cole "rang the bell".  There is this bell that on the last day of treatment get to ring it.  When he rang the bell, actually he held Aspens hand and she rang it, that's when we all let the tears flow. Cole didn't but he's tuff.  :)  It was great.  We took some pictures and some video footage.  I'll get that downloaded sometime, hopefully soon.
We took pictures with the amazing nurses that took good care of him.

To celebrate we went out to Antelope Island and had a barbecue.   Cole didn't know the rest of the family were going to be there so they went to the visitors center and when we walked in they surprised him.  It was great having everyone there, except we missed Kurtis who was working and Erika who was at EFY.  We had a yummy barbecue and then floated in the stinky Great Salt Lake.  The Lake wasn't stinky I guess but the water lever was very low and so there were some muddy places getting out to the lake that were putrid.

This past week Cole, Taleena and Aspen come down.  He did pretty well with recovering.  He didn't get too sick.  Today they left a little earlier than they had planned though because he was feeling exhausted.  When he would stand up his heart would race.  When that happens his blood is not good.  He will probably be getting transfusions tomorrow. On the 19th and 20th he has his scans to check everything.  If everything looks good they will take his port out soon!  He is excited about that.

Thanks again for all  your prayers and support.  The 19th and 20th he could use a few extra prayers.  We feel confident that the tests will come back good.  His last tests looked good and we feel blessed to have witnessed such a miracle in his progress.

Good Night and God Bless

Hello,
I've been slacking again.  So I'll try to catch up.  I am so glad we have Sundays to regroup and put life back into perspective.
I've been having technical difficulties and I need to get to bed but first I'll give a brief run down on what to look forward in my next post.

I got a call Thursday night from Erika, she was locked in a Mr. Bubbles car wash...
Sounds a lot like Duke, Kjerstin, Kurtis and I getting locked in the Washington D.C. temple baptistery...

One graduation down, 3 more to go...

Cole,Taleena and Aspen were able to come visit...

Had a great Saturday at Thanksgiving Point running the 5K with my niece Nicki.  It was also fun to watch my brother John and his wife Celest and my niece Mandi and her husband Sam run the 1/2 marathon!!

Stay tuned for more details later.......

I want life to slow down!  Going over the calendar the next two months will be crazy but June should be much better.  Erika will have 3 graduations, no 4!  Success Academy Graduation on April 24th,  SUU Graduation on May 4th and 5th.  She will graduate with her associates in Science and Engineering. She made it and is very very excited to be graduating!!  CVHS Graduation May 23rd and also seminary graduation sometime in May.  Kjertin graduates From SUU as well with her bachelors in Family Life and Human Development with an emphasis in family services.  We are so proud of her!!!  She made it!!!!

Daniel went in to get a new cast because he took some of the sand dunes home with him is his cast.  Not very comfy on the skin.  They took it off and exrayed it and he got to keep it off!!  He just needs to go easy for a week or so.  (Good Luck with that one, he's a 14 year old boy, they don't understand, "go easy".)

Cole had chemo this week.  He hasn't been as sick so far and we pray he will not get as low as he has been getting.  They are going to give him 2 weeks to recover instead of one.  When Daren took Daniel into get his new cast the Dr. that has been working with Daniel is the one that Cole went to after his first MRI.  He was very happy to hear how well Cole is doing.  He said when he saw Cole's MRI it was the worst case he has ever seen.  And that he didn't sleep for a few days after consulting with Cole, Taleena and Daren.  The news he gave us that day was so hard to handle.  I can honestly say that was the hardest day of my life.  I am so glad that the night before he went into talk with the Dr. that he was given a blessing.  He was told that the road to recovery would be a hard one but that he would make it through.   And Taleena's blessing told her twice that he would be OK.  I did wonder what OK would look like.  The Dr. said he would lose his leg.  And Cole and Taleena were trying to be so positive. They said they would rather have Cole with one leg then no Cole.  Of course we all felt the same way.  We feel so blessed that he has responded so well to the therapy.  

We have learned so much through this trail.  We know God knows and loves us.  I know that faith in our Savior Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation is what gives me hope and peace.  I have been blessed by so many giving and caring people!  There are many good examples the Lord has surrounded me with and I have many people to lean on.  Thank you all and God Bless.