Hi all. Have a few things to update on. I misspoke with the last post, Elijah is in the inter-maintence phase not delayed intensification. I think this has been the hardest on Elijah for quite awhile. The medication he is on is really doing a number in him. He feels soooooo lousily. He has no energy and absolutely no appetite!! He is taking two to three naps a day and he literally eats a couple bits of food a day. The doctors put him on an appetite stimulant to try and get him to eat. He grew 2cm, but he has lost a pound and so they were concerned enough to give him medication to get him to eat. Dr. Al-Zein said that if this doesn't work then they would have to look at alternative method like a feeding tube. I said no way!!! I am trying to do anything to get him to eat. He also has an extremely heightened sense of smell. Everything smells bad to him and I think that also has made food taste bad to him. I'm ready for this phase to be over already and we have about 8 weeks left. The worst part for me is thinking about leaving for Utah to meet our new baby and having to leave him for a couple of weeks. He just hasn't been himself with all of this and I haven't been away from him for a day since he got sick. He tells me all day long that he is tired and that's what he was doing for the two weeks before he was diagnosed, so that freaks me out a little and of course I think that maybe there is something else wrong that we don't know yet. I can't imagine if something happened to him while I am gone. We are leaving him in good hands, but I'm still pretty stressed about it. Poor little guy, I just want him to feel better soon. We are also keeping a close eye on his legs. A couple of weeks ago Elijah told me that his leg hurt and at first it didn't occur to me that this is a symptom to watch for during this phase of his chemo. He is getting a drug called Vincristine that can cause toxicity and the first and biggest symptom to watch for is leg pain. He was walking a little funny and Dr Al-Zein noticed so now if he mentions anything with his legs then they will give him yet another medication for the toxicity. We were back in the hospital last weekend just overnight becuase Elijah spiked a fever. Turns out, both of his ears were infected. He hasn't had an ear infection since he was 15 months old!!! What the crap. Luckily we got to go home the next day since his ANC was high enough. They would have kept him for the normal three days if his counts would have been low. I think we have just had bad luck with ears lately, Alivia is getting tubes in her ears on Monday.
The kids and I decided to come to Kansas with my sister this last Wednesday and stay through the weekend. It has been a good trip other than the occasional bad mood from Elijah. We went to the zoo on Thursday and have just been hangin' out the rest of the time. Actually pretty relaxing and just nice to get away from everyday life in the doctors offices for awhile. Levi and my mom came tonight (Friday) and we are all leaving on Sunday. I am going to put some updated pictures on finally, sorry it has taken so long. Baby day is getting closer, we are so excited!! Talk to everyone soon. Pray that Elijah will feel better soon. Love you all!!!

P.S. Hi Kami. So good to hear from you. I checked this last time we were in the hospital and you weren't working, but we will try again next time. It would be great to see you.

Hi there all! We are doing well. Elijah, Alivia and I all had a long and rough day on Friday at the clinic starting Elijah's next phase of his treatment. He started Delayed intensification and it was a big day with lots of expectations from him. Everything was traumatic and now that Alivia is finally walking, she was a handful on top of it. He had to have a spinal to put a medication called methatrexate through his spinal fluid. It took FIVE pokes to finally get this done and you would think I would be use to seeing him suffer. I am here to say, I believe no matter how long we have been doing this, it doesn't get any easier to watch him have to go through these very hard times. We are better now, but it's days like that when I honestly wonder how much more I can take. After a few good days, or at least not so bad days I feel like I'm ready to conquer a little more. Alivia is a busy body and into EVERYTHING!!!!! I guess we knew this was coming. She is still pretty cute!!

On another note, I think it's time we make it official and let those of you who don't already know our new news! We are expecting a baby that will be joining our family in May. It's coming right up and we are super excited to be growing our family by yet another one. (No, I'm not pregnant)! It will be another little girl and her name will be Tysa Marie. Please pray for us, HaHa.
Love you all!!

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are finally done with Alivia's battle. The apalette court sent the ruling down and affirms with the district court!! YEA!! Here is her in her blessing dress that we will finally get to use, and very soon!!

Thanks for all your prayers and support along the way.
We LOVE you all!!!