Horse Ride, Birthday Party, Daddy/Son Date, Wedding

 I had a busy couple weeks and got behind on blogging.  So I thought today I would post some catch up pictures :). 

I love this picture of these two.  They are almost inseparable.  Thankfully the keys were out or they would have went to town.... or at least tried to. HA! 

Kayla sent me this when I was in Birmingham.  Sweet girls :)!!

 Before Kyle left he and Kman had a Daddy/Son date and went to watch the new Ninja turtle movie.

 We went to a childhood friend of mines wedding and while I was doing Heidi's hair, Sophie decided to do a little photography....

And of course she wanted to do a selfie.

 K and S were both so excited to see Luke at the wedding.  They kept Chasity and Luke entertained while we were waiting in the reception area.

 Amanda's niece, Tinley, got a pony for her birthday.  Before the party we went to let the girls ride him just to make sure he did okay :).  It was right up both girls alley.  I knew they would be wanting a pony after that. 

 While I was with Mom in Birmingham, Kyle's Mom played the "mom/meme" role :).  She was a life savor.  I knew the kids were in good hands and I didn't have to worry about them so I could be with my Mom.  She even took them to Heidi's friend, Katie's, birthday party.  AND was fabulous enough to send me pictures..... (actually, pictures all weekend to make me smile).....

 My friend, Emily, also was sending me pictures :)!!  I was so excited to get each one.

Heidi and her friend, Cuba.

They swam at MeMe's, went to Wal-Mart, went on walks, face-timed with me, just really had a good time.

I love this picture.  MeMe has a tattoo of her Dad's EKG from the day of his accident and the date of the accident.  Sophie wanted one just like it and said that hers was "Babee's Cancer Free" tattoo :)!

While Karter and Heidi were in school, Soph and MeMe went to BeBe's (MeMe's mom) and had a little pedicure session :)!

 I am so very thankful for all the wonderful grandparents in our children's lives.  What sweet memories they will have. 

School Time with The Colquett's

 School mornings have been challenging with Kman.  He has fun once he gets there, but it is the getting there that is the problem.  I have to say that this morning he did minimal complaining.  It took 13 school days, but maybe he is getting the hang of things. 

Most mornings consist of these questions from him:

(1) I have to go AGAIN?

(2) Did you get me a soft shirt? (tshirt)

(3) Why you always want me to look handsome? Every day is not handsome day! (meaning why do I sometimes make him wear shirts with a collar)

(4) You got me tennis shoes to wear? (I'm really not sure why I bought any other shoes but tennis shoes)

(5) NOT THAT LUNCHBOX (He has 3 and I usually pick the wrong one for the day)

I am so thankful that Mrs. Ellison sends me occasional snaps of him having fun.  It sure helps my feelings.  She knows our morning struggles are real.  

One day last week he and I were riding the golf cart, just us, and I asked him if he really did like school.  He smiled and nodded his head.  I think it was just the change in routine and getting used to getting up and going in the mornings.  

Here are some pictures of him having a good time :).....

He was so excited about this shapes hat.  He even wore it home that afternoon.

 Seeing the snack time snap reminds me.....  he is so different than Heidi as far as remembering things.  He had been begging to take a big thermos with drink in it for lunch and snack instead of capri suns.  I finally did it and put it in the side of his back pack.  Well, he told Mrs. Ellison that he didn't have anything to drink for lunch so she told him to go get some milk and charge it to his account.  So he did.  That afternoon for snack time, he suddenly remembered the big thermos full of sweet tea :) and said, "Oh yea! Here is my lunch drink".  She just laughed.  He completely forgot that it was in there.

One day when I was in Birmingham with Mom, Kyle put his lunch box in his backpack.  Well, Karter forgot it was in there and ate in the lunchroom that day.  Which was fine because it ended up being hot pocket day and he actually liked them.  If I don't put his lunch box in his hand, he forgets it is in his backpack.  Boys will be boys :)!  They are one track minded.  Or mine are anyway (like father like son *haha*).

Kyle sent me this when I was in Birmingham of them before he got them up for school.

 When Heidi found out that I would be in Birmingham and Kyle would have to do the school thing by himself, she asked, "Will Daddy be able to do it"?  I laughed and knew he could, but it bothered him that everyone was asking if he could.  So he sent these pictures to prove that he did it.....

This was on Friday after Moms surgery :)

 I know this post was mostly about Karter.  Mostly because there is not a struggle with Heidi.  She gets up, willingly to get dressed in whatever I have picked out (& usually always loves it), eats her breakfast, and there aren't any complaints. 

I will say we have to study a lot more in 3rd grade.  I had heard how much harder it was, and it is.  BUT that is okay.  It is going to teach us both how to have more patience and how to be more studious. 

I thought this was neat......

I actually did that very thing (with a different saying, but had finger nail polish and used the word "polished" in the tag on it) for Heidi's teacher the first week of school.  I had not seen it on pinterest, I just saw the polish and immediately thought of Mrs. Rogers and then spent time trying to think of a good saying to go with it.  Several days later I came across this on Pinterest. 

This is Heidi......

 

AND

This is Kman in the mornings......

Our 1st Set of Stitches....

 Okay.... this is your warning, if blood bothers you, then I suggest you skipping this post.

Saturday afternoon I was outside with Karter and Sophie.  I was feeding the dogs and messing with the chickens and Karter and Soph were hitting a golf ball with a couple of clubs. 

I had just put the dog food in the bin when Karter started screaming bloody murder and came running to me.  There was blood dripping all down his head and all over his chest.  I scooped him up and ran inside.  

I got the blood under control and calmed him down the best I could before trying to understand what happened.  I will admit that I honestly believed Sophie did it on purpose.  She was crying and screaming, "I'M SORRY I'M SORRY" and then ran to her room.  She really felt bad about it. They both stuck to the story that he bent down to get the ball and she didn't see him.  She swung to hit the ball and hit his head instead :(.  It hurts me to think about it.

It is amazing actually, but none of our kids have ever had to have stitches.  I expected it to happen before now. 

Hard to see through his hair, but this was once I got the blood to stop pouring out.

 Kyle's mom & my mom thought he at least needed steri-strips.  I had no idea since we had never dealt with this before.  Usually when one of them gets a bad "boo boo", Kyle is here with me and when I mention stitches he tells me they don't need them.  BUT, this was a pretty big gap. 

So I scooped them all up really fast and headed to the Dr.  I picked up Kyle's mom and left the girls at her house with Cindy's friend, Suzanne. 

This was what it looked like just on the ride to Andalusia.

 He was a TROOPER the whole time.  He never even whimpered while getting the stitches.  Dr. Boyington and his nurse were absolutely wonderful. 

 Turns out he needed 2 stitches.  I was really glad I took him.

This was after they stitched him and had it all cleaned up.

Poor baby boy :(

MeMe was so nervous (she doesn't do blood hehe), so she told Kman she would take him to Walmart for new legos since he was so brave. 

He has done so well with them and really hasn't complained much.  They are still sticking with their same story when they talk to me about it.  Karter started to tell my Dad a slightly different story last night, but when I ask about it he still tells me the same thing.  When someone else asks Soph about it, she usually says, "I don't wanna talk about it".  I was so afraid that she had gotten mad at him and then lashed out.  Hopefully it was a true accident :).  The first of many I am sure.

Things I Miss About Summer....

There are a lot of people that actually look forward to school starting.  Especially working folks.  When you work, it's a lot easier to have a routine and take your kids to school rather than daycare or here or there for someone to keep them.  Me on the other hand, as much as I like having a plan, I do not like the routine of school.  I miss my kids.  Simply put.

(1) I miss the free-ness of summer.  

No schedules, no waking up early, no bed times.  Just being free to do whatever we please every day.  

(2) I miss late night bike rides.  

Sitting outside watching the kids play and ride bikes late at night is one of my favorite things to do during the summer.  

(3) Playing until after dark. 

We love to play soccer, freeze tag, hiding go seek, and baseball when it is just starting to get dark.  When school starts back that means the time will change soon and it will get dark sooner than later.  I don't like it being pitch black outside at 6:00 in the evening.  

(4) Swimming.

The kids love to swim.  When summer first started we were by somebody's pool almost everyday.  

(5) The Beach.

Where we live it is so easy to just pick up and head to the beach for the day.  It still is something you can do in the fall and winter, but we just love the sand and water.

I mostly miss just being with my kids all day everyday.  Yes, I would be lying if I said they didn't drive me crazy some days.  BUT that is time that I get them all to myself.  And then when Kyle is home we all get to be together all day every day.  They laugh, they cry, they fuss, they fight, but most of all we made memories each and every day.   Plus, I also know how fast the school years seem to go by (summers too, but the school year passing means they are getting older). 

Summer is my favorite!

HALLELUJAH! She is CANCER FREE!

Y'all I want to shout to the world..... MY MOM IS CANCER FREE!!!  

CANCER FREE!!!!

God answered our prayers.  God answered all of your prayers.  So many of you don't even know us and were praying.  There's not enough Thank Yous in the World to thank you for praying for her.  Thank you for trusting and putting your faith in our Savior.  He chose to honor our request and heal her.  He has plans that are bigger than any of ours.  And I pray that we never EVER forget what He did Friday. 

Here is how the story goes:

We had to be here Friday morning at 8:30.  By the way I am saying "here", because I am typing this as I sit in the hospital room.  They took her back right after we arrived.  Once they had her prepped for surgery we were able to be with her until they they took her back for the surgery.  We took those moments and had many family photos.  

Our preacher's wife, Mrs. Terry, and Moms good friends Tammy & Kim also came, but they came after we took these pictures.  All of the doctors and nurses that would come in would laugh and joke about the party we were having :).  

They took her back about 11 and called us at 12 to let us know they had started.  They were still anticipating a 3-4 hour surgery.  The nurse told me she would call me back in two hours to give me a progress update.  We had all been up since 3:30 A.M. and were pretty hungry.  We went down to some of the local eateries.  I hadn't finished eating, but happened to pull my phone out of my purse at 1:16 and noticed I had a missed call and VM at 1:10 from a Birmingham number.  It was Dr. Huh.  He wanted to meet with us.  I quickly told the others that we had to go.  We rushed back up and they put us in a conference room. 

There were so many emotions going on.   The surgery was supposed to last 3-4 hours and had only lasted 1 hour 10 minutes.  Did they open her up and say there was nothing they could do?  Tyler and I could not understand what was going on.  We were so scared. 

Dr. Huh came in and told us he wanted to tell us the news himself (by the way we have it all on video *big smile*).  When they opened her up there was no sign of a tumor or cancer.  GLORY TO GOD!!!!  We had all seen the radiology scan Wednesday.  We saw what was on it and how concerned Dr. Huh was.  WE KNEW THIS WAS A GOD THING.  No other explanation.  When they opened her they removed a mass that was left over remnants from her uterus and part of her cervix that were left from her initial surgery in Andalusia. 

Folks none of this was an accident.  Dr. Huh's expertise is Ovarian Cancer and better yet, Moms rare kind.  He knew what had been there.  He knew the severity of her case.  He told us Wednesday that he scheduled that CT Scan after her 3rd treatment because he just knew he would have to tell us that there was nothing he could do for her and the chemotherapy would not help.  He said that he doesn't schedule a scan like that normally.  AND then Wednesday he told us he did not expect her to be sitting there 6 months from her first treatment.  Look, if you don't believe in God and miracles, Janet Anderson, is a full MIRACLE.  On the video we have when Mrs. Terry asked Dr. Huh some questions about what happened, his reply was, "Well.... ummmm.... that is a really good question".  In other words there really isn't a medical explanation.   His exact words were, "She is cancer free.  No more chemo."

I have read about miracles in the Bible and always believed what I read, but until I actually witnessed a miracle first hand and KNOW what I saw on the screen and then what the Drs saw when they opened my mother, it really opened my eyes.   There are miracles all throughout the Bible.  I spent a lot of time yesterday reading my Bible, writing things down, studying. 

I knew God could save her.  I knew only He could.  But did I really put all my faith in Him like I should have?  I may be 29 years old, but I felt like a 6 year old watching my mom battle cancer since February 4th and go through two surgeries. 

Mom and I were talking and as thankful as we are, it is almost a guilty feeling.  Like why God chooses to heal some and not others.  It is not our place to question God and His healing power.  I am just forever grateful and I pray that none of us EVER forget the miracle that took place. 

Thursday night I had a parent meeting at school with Heidi's teacher.  As I was going through her papers, I happened to notice there was something on the back of one of them.... and then of course tears flooded my eyes.

 Child like faith.  That is what we all need. 

 It amazed me that even at 8, Babee's cancer consumed Heidi's thoughts.  She doodled that paper at school when there were a gazillion other things going on around her.

That night she hung this sign up on my door......

I love and miss my kiddos so badly.  I am very thankful that MeMe was able to take care of them for me.
 UAB has been a second home for us over the past 6 months.  I joked with them the other day and told them my car could drive itself.  We will still have to come every 3 months for a scan.  But hey, that is A-Okay!

Thought I would show you some more picture from our time here.....

This was all of us as we waited to go in to her room to tell her the wonderful news....

.... our little tags we have to wear each day......

 .... Although this has been an exhausting journey, it has been life changing to say the least.  In the book I am reading, Raw Faith, I came across this page and this one sentence says it all.....

"I do not desire to walk this cancer road again... but I would never take it back."

We all have grown closer and learned so much since the first of this year.  Moms cancer has taught us valuable lessons about life and never to take any day for granted.  

They removed her epidural this morning, so she is in a good bit of pain. 

But we are praising God from whom all mercies flow. 

The miracle that happened is real.