Double birthday Part II

We snuck over to Tim's work and decorated his bike for his birthday.

As our luck would have it, he decided to leave work a few minutes early (because it was his birthday of all reasons) and caught us right in the act.  Oh well, it was so worth being able to see him ride home.

We opened presents

And had a birthday pie.

We were so lucky to have our sister-in-law Tiffany with us for an entire week to make everything go so smoothly.  Thanks to John and the kids for loaning her to us!

I could list 37 million reasons why I am so glad I married Tim.  If just one thing, it's that there is no one else in this whole wide world I would rather walk hand in hand through the trials we are facing.  He is simply the best.  

I love you sweetie, Happy Birthday.

Double birthday Part I

We have something really cool in our family.

Whitney and Tim share a birthday and five years ago on August 9th was when that cool tradition began.

Yes, I'm a little behind, but I don't want to miss these memories.

Look closely so you don't miss how much Tim has changed.

Just kidding.  Gotta love how tiny Whitney was back then to just snuggle on her dad's shoulder.  Tim still wears that shirt and has the same haircut, maybe a few more gray hairs though?

This year was super special because Whitney got to have her first friend birthday party.  She invited 5 friends and wanted a "pajama" party.  She invited the four Bailey girls and one other friend who couldn't make it. 

We started out with waffles and strawberries and cream for dinner

She chose a chocolate chocolate heart-shaped cake with Ariel on the top.  We went super simple this year.

Okay, we had more than one Ariel.  But what little girl can't resist 5 Ariel's and one more to grow on for their cake?

And how about a swimming Ariel doll

A personalized pillow!

And these are our traditional pictures with the birthday kid.

 I think I forgot to post Spencer's from his 3rd birthday in May, so here they are:

Whitney is such an easy going sweetheart with a pretty clever sense of humor.  She's easily mistaken for being a few years older because of her height and vocabulary.  I love her charm but mostly her compassion for others, especially for Mikey.

 The birthday fun for Tim and Whitney spanned two days so I'll post more tomorrow.

Tanner's Party

This weekend was chock full of fun.

I took Sarah and Whitney camping Friday night and had so much fun.  We slept way better than Tim did since he was home with the boys and was up for a few hours with Michael in the middle of the night.

Sorry about the iPhone pics in this post, but it happened to be the only camera we had on hand.

The girls enjoying hot chocolate and s'mores so much that Whitney smeared the chocolate all over her face

Saturday evening we had the unique opportunity to attend Tanner Seebaum's birthday party.  Let me just tell you a bit about Tanner and why he is important to our family. 

Tanner was diagnosed with the same type of brain cancer as Michael back in 1998.  He has survived the cancer now for 14 years, and in the process his parents and friends founded the Tanner Seebaum Foundation which has raised millions of dollars for pediatric cancer research, particularly for Michael's kind of brain tumor.  In fact, this foundation has provided an enormous amount of funding to Dr. Nick Foreman's (Michael's doctor) research.  Tanner has really been the flag bearer for surviving this cancer.  However, unfortunately, Tanner was diagnosed just at the end of May with Glioblastoma, an aggressive, fatal tumor caused by the radiation treatments.  He is 16 years old. 

Nevertheless, Tanner's annual birthday Splash Bash fundraiser took place and it was the party of the night in Denver.  We were so honored to be able to go and meet him and his family.

Thank you Tanner, it was so awesome to meet you

It was so great to see our Dr. Foreman there.

And spend some time hanging out with some of our favorite people, Hazel's family, the Sievers (Hazel has the same type of brain cancer as Michael too).

Michael can sure keep a poker face about the baby crush he has on Hazel

The party took place at a nice country club in Denver and the kids loved swimming in the kiddy pool.

Too bad we got stuck in traffic and arrived a little late and missed seeing Missy Franklin there!

We can't say enough thanks to Tanner and his family for how they have blessed our family's life with their incredible work over the past many years.  Happy Birthday Tanner.

Come What May and Love It

Mikey made some physical leaps this week.  He's starting to army crawl/scootch  across the floor and he's started wanting us to help him stand.  Such simple ordinary milestones for an ordinary baby, such a mountain for Michael. 

We are learning and living more each day the meaning of the phrase, "Come what may and love it."

If anyone would have told us our baby would have cancer and lose the ability to smile and blink and his strength and coordination would vanish, it would have been a nightmare just to comprehend.  In some ways, it has been a nightmare as life as we knew it disappeared.

But then slowly, the beauty of our new life emerges.  It's interesting how now we delight in Michael's crooked half-smile and whole-heartedly embrace his fun and playful personality.  We begin to love our Mikey just as he is and embrace our life as it has become.  What an incredible gift that is.

We relish in the adoration our kids have for their brother

And when one of their friends say to them, "Your brother looks weird," they are quick to reply, "Well he has cancer, duh."

We find this ordinary place special, with a favorite sleep toy, woobie, and charts that remind us of all the meds, creams and ointments needed everyday.  We are needed and we can give of ourselves everyday.

We don't fret so much when the kids dump the whole bottle of shampoo in the tub to make a bubble bath...

or sneak the camera and take pictures of the things they find beautiful and special to them, like their toys...

and the flowers on their bedroom dresser,

their missing front teeth

 and their brother

I'm finding we take life at a slower pace and build margins into our schedules.  The frantic pace that life can become just isn't worth it.  Instead we are treasuring what we want to treasure:  family, friends, love.

The journey is still hard.  Very hard.  Some days and moments we feel so much sadness. That is reality.

But we try to put forth the effort to see the beauty of our new life today.

And it goes something like this:  Wow, is our 13 month old sitting on his own??  And check out that cute half-smile and how his eyes are trying to work together...

Thank you doc

We took some time the past couple weeks tracking down some of our favorite doctors we haven't seen in awhile to take some pictures and say thank you.  I don't think I could convey with words how cool these people are to our family.  They care a ton about Michael and that means a lot to us.  I wish we could give a big thanks to them by maybe buying them an expensive car, or even paying off their student loans, but I guess all we can do is post their pictures on our blog and just say thanks.

Dr. Brent O'Neill, our neurosurgeon.  This guy is like a rockstar, although he is so humble and unassuming

Dr. Jacob Freeman, our neurosurgeon resident.  He affectionately calls Michael "Mike" and says he's his favorite patient.  Michael in turns decides to imitate his name-alike, Michael Jordan.

Also, a huge thanks to our anesthesiologists and nurses who helped us everyday during radiation.  Here are just two of the dozen we saw regularly:

Ginny, so incredibly nice to Michael and great to work with

And Wanda who was also so cute with Michael and kept everything running smoothly

 Also just to take a minute and say a huge thanks to our Oncology team (I posted pictures of them back in may and July):

Dr. Nick Foreman

Dr. Jeff Knipstein

Dr. Arthur Liu

These people are like family to us and we can't thank them enough for their skills and talents and friendship that bless our family so much.

End of Radiation-Beginning of School

Yesterday our home was filled with a light and happy mood.  We couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces because Michael finished radiation and school started.  To me, summer vacation is actually WAY too SHORT and I wish I could have my kids to myself much longer.  I guess I'm one of those types of moms.  But, I also love the excitement of a new school year, the anticipation of new learning and new experiences and it's rubbed off onto the kids a little bit so far.

We get 8 weeks to be a "normal" family and we are relishing in this time.  Michael still has physical, occupational and vision therapy and will start up speech therapy.  But we won't have to go to the hospital for 8 whole weeks until the next MRI to see what radiation has done to the tumor.  The doctors right now are in disagreement about whether we will see tumor or not so we are just going to enjoy these 8 weeks knowing nothing.   

Tim and I had to split duties yesterday, Tim taking Michael to his last day of radiation and I taking the kids to their first day of school.  Here are some pictures of this exciting day:

Tim holding Michael's certificate that says, "Certificate of Graduation presented to Michael Wheeler.
In recognition of your courage and strength."

In the recovery room are two large walls covered with hand prints of everyone who has completed radiation there.  This facility serves both the big and small, old and young, so there is quite the variety of hands.  This picture doesn't even come close to capturing the hundreds of hand prints on the walls.

Placing his hand on the wall

His is the fuzzy green one in the middle

Sarah is starting 1st Grade

Somebody lost two bottom teeth in the past couple of weeks and is begging mom to tell her what the tooth fairy looks like and when her mom says, "She looks like me," she doesn't believer her.

And she likes her shoes

Sneaking a pic just as school is getting started

Whitney just turned 5 last week (more about that in a later post) and is starting Kindergarten.  She actually started today instead of yesterday.

"Do you really have to take one more picture of us?"

Whitney was "very excited" to start kindergarten until I had to leave her.  You can see her nervous smile in this pic and her awesome K teacher in the background.

And yes, I will be pretty excited that I won't have to set my alarm for 3AM feedings and 5:30AM wake-ups and 3 hours of driving everyday.

on the road

The corn fields are a main attraction while we drive to and from radiation.  I love their beautifully aligned rows and they are growing fast in the heat. 

Just a little more than a week of radiation.