Good Update on Brendon!!!

this was just posted on his web page:

We got the results back from the final test and there are no other signs of cancer anywhere else in his body!! Praise God!! All the tests are done for now... Now we focus on getting phase one of the chemotherapy done so we all can go home......

Bren spent most of the day today playing with his Uncle Tommy and visiting with family. He has had so many visitors that we have had to limit the amount of people that get to see him. He gets tired very easily and we are trying to let him get as much sleep as possible. The doctors told us how happy they were with his progress... All the nurses and doctors have said how much he must be loved. His room is full of cards, notes, balloons and Red Sox stuff. It's great!

Tomorrow it will be one week since we learned of his cancer. It's hard to believe...

More updates to come.

Brendon ~ an update from Amber

this is the update posted on his page that they set up for him at the hospital:

FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2007 11:34 AM, CDT
Today Bren had his first shot of Asparaginase which was injected into his thigh muscle. He was so tough! He shed one tear while the medicine was going in and that's it... He had no adverse reaction to it, which is awesome! His spirits are high and he's surrounded by people that love him. His uncle (my older brother) flew in from Korea to visit him and that meant so much to Brendon and I.
Last night we told Bren that he would probably lose his hair. He cried then he asked me what the good thing about having no hair was. I told him he wouldn't have to comb it in the morning. Then he wiped his tears and said "Mom, the other good thing is that it's good to be different.". I cried and held him and told him how proud I was of him. He's an amazing kid. Brendon's uncles, cousins, dad and various other people are going to shave their heads as soon as Bren starts to lose his. I'm going to line them all up and we are all going to be with him every step of the way..

Donation Meter!

one of my blog readers found this donation meter and passed it on. we only have $10 to go to reach our goal, but i thought i would put it up anyway! here it is:




i have not received an update yet, but i did want to pass along his site that they are keeping for him. i don't think his parents will mind. there is a place to leave messages too. have a great day and if i receive an update, i will surely pass it along! there is still not alot on there besides messages, but here is a link to his site:

http://caringbridge.org/visit/brendondunn

Another Update!!! :)

Brendon and his mom!

this is a blog that amber (brendon's mom) posted on her myspace:

As I sit here reading all the kind words and offers of support, I am blown away..

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to update my bulletin/blog.. Can't get to MySpace from the hospital anymore. Here is the update:

Brendon went through his first intense chemotherapy last night at 5:45pm. This morning he took a shower and walked around the halls of the hospital a little, which was awesome!! He's eating and laughing again.. The real Brendon is starting to come back. He knows that he has cancer and he knows that he has a long road ahead of him, but he's such a fighter. He's going to beat this! We got the results back from the bone marrow, spinal fluid and CAT scan and they are all clear. We are waiting on one more test (which we should have tomorrow at the latest) to see if the cancer has spread anywhere else. The doctors believe that it will come back clear. BRENDON DOES NOT HAVE BRAIN CANCER AND HE HAS NOT BEEN CUT OPEN FROM TOP TO BOTTOM AND HE IS NOT FULL OF CANCER. He has a very large (a little bigger than a grapefruit) tumor on the right side of his chest. That's it. No other cancer present anywhere (that we know of). He has had 2 surgeries. One was for a biopsy (where they remove a small piece of the tumor) and the other was to have a central line put in and to test his spinal fluid and bone marrow. He will not need any additional surgeries as of right now. All of the nursing staff, doctors, surgeons and every person that we have come in contact with has been fantastic! We are in great hands.

Thank you for all the love and support you have been giving us. It means more to us than you'll ever know. Please feel free to repost this on your own pages if you want. The only thing I ask is that you relay accurate information. It's very upsetting for members of my family to get phone calls from people who are arguing about what they have heard on Bren's condition. I have started a webpage for Bren that I'm working on updated. Please keep checking in on it for updates. On this page you can send comments and Bren will be able to check it. The hospital is setting him up with a laptop. The e-mails and cards that he has been getting have been so encouraging to him. His face lights up when we read them to him. He's such a great kid! All the nurses love him.

Sorry this is so sporatic, but I'm trying to rush back to the hospital.

Thank you all again. We love you all!

this is a message i received in my email. there is a little more info in this. as amber said, she was in a hurry to get to the hospital. this is from her friend and what she received from amber:

4/26/07



Brendon received his first dose of chemotherapy yesterday. It went very well. He didn’t get sick so that is really good. The doctors are very optimistic that he’ll have very little sickness throughout the chemo treatments. They said it usually gets worse before it gets better and since Brendon didn’t have any complications from the four doses of chemo he received yesterday, they are thinking he’ll do very well through this treatment.



Due to the chemo, his hair will begin to fall out within the next 10 – 14 days. It may re-grow a bit here and there but for the most part it will not grow back until he is completely finished with chemotherapy.



The bone marrow biopsy came back and the cancer has not spread to his bone marrow. So that is awesome news! His spinal fluid is also free of cancer. They did a PET scan yesterday and they are still waiting on the results from that but they think it will come back good. In a PET scan, they insert a dye into the blood stream and scan the body. The dye is designed to go to the areas where the cells are working to repair themselves such as the area of Brendon ’s tumor. Any areas that light up on Brendon ’s scan will have to be further tested to see if there are more cancer cells growing. But the doctors are thinking that the tumor in Brendon ’s chest is the only one.



He is on the sixth floor at MMC now. He’ll be there for another 3 – 4 weeks. He is free of all tubes and needles, with the exception of the IV port in his chest which will remain there throughout his chemotherapy. He’s moving around, taking walks and getting up to use the bathroom, shower, etc. They have a game room on that floor with a big screen TV where they broadcast the Seadogs games. He checked it out today. He can see Hadlock Field from his room too and sometimes a few Seadogs players and/or the mascot go over to visit so hopefully they’ll make a trip over there sometime while Brendon is there.



That’s about all I have for updates right now. But Amber and Andy want me to pass along how extremely grateful they are for all the love being sent their way. They really do appreciate every card, e-mail, phone call or gift. As expected, they do have so much going on right now, they may not be able to contact you back right away but they are getting the messages and it’s really keeping their spirits up. The support and encouragement everyone is showing as well as Brendon ’s strength and courage is really what is getting them through right now. He is an amazing kid. He’s been a trooper through all this from day one. He lights up when he gets a card or an e-mail. He really enjoys those. Also, they’ve begun to work on his web-page. Right now it’s still pretty new so there isn’t a lot of info on there.


Keep the prayers and positive thoughts going. They’re working!!!

i have the website info, but i did not want to publish it. any updates that are put up there, i will post here. if you are a friend of them or aquantaince, feel free to contact me and i will pass along the site!

p.s. just to update on the total for donations, our goal is $200 and we are at $190!!! i still have 4 people that i am waiting on that said they wanted to donate!!! thanks to all and please don't feel like we will reach our goal so you can't give, if you want to be a part of this, we would love you to join. $200 was a goal i didn't think we would get to and now that we're here, it seems like we could do so much more. anyway, thanks to all the people who already donated and will continue to do so!!!!

Donation Update :)

no new news has been received today, but if something comes in, i will update again later. i thought i would update our donation total. we are at $190, so only $10 more dollars to go to get to our goal.....yeah!!!! thank you, thank you to all who have donated. i know if i was in Andy and Ambers shoes, that it would make me feel really good to know someone cared enough to donate some money so i could stay with my child during this difficult time. anyway, thanks again, and it doesn't hurt to go above and beyond our goal :) i also thought i would let you know that i have been contacted by someone wanting to donate but not till tuesday/wednesday, so, we will wait to close it until i receive their donation! my emial address is ds4nier@megalink.net if you need to contact me for any reason :) have a great day and remember to hug your kids, and thank God that they are healthy!!!

A Short Update on Brendon!

i received another update that was forwarded by a friend. this is the email from one of Amber's friends:

Good Morning,

I just got off the phone with Amber and she seems to be doing pretty well. Although, they all have their moments. Brendon is having Chemo as we speak so today will be a hard day. She just wants everyone to know, that whenever they receive and email its’ being read to Brendon . They also hang the email up in his room. She wants to thank everyone for your well wishes, thoughts, and prayers.

I did get some ideas on stuff that we could send to Brendon :

His favorite football team is the Patriots (of course)

His favorite baseball team are the Red Socks

He has a portable dvd player, he is allowed PG, PG13. She suggested Are we there yet for a movie. They just got Night in the Museum (awesome movie by the way)

I asked if he could have a basketball in his room to hang either on the wall or door. She said that was a good idea. There are kids there that ride their bikes through the hallways.

He is now allowed to have helium balloons, flowers and what not. But NO latex.

He is into building things, doing stuff with his hands. Like legos, and there is something else that you can build stuff it’s plastic with silver balls, but I cant remember what they are called, any help with the name would be appreciated (ha).

We are planning on going up to see them on Saturday. If I get any more news I will let you all know.

Again, she thanks you all for all the thoughts, prayers and well wishes.

since we are raising money for a visa card for them, they will not only be able to buy things that will keep brendon busy, but they will be able to pay for gas to visit him and other supplies they may need or bills they may need to pay. so far, donations are up to $115 dollars and right now we are looking at a goal for $200, of course, beating our goal will not hurt my feelings at all! i was planning on closing it on saturday, but if you need longer, then please contact me and let me know so i don't close it without you being able to participate.

i have been looking for a donation meter to put on the site, but have not been able to find one, if anyone knows where i can create one, could you please let me know. thanks!!

i hope all is well, and thanks for checking out my blog -----> donation button on the right :)

Update On Brendon!!!!!

I have added a "donation" button under my about me section on the right. this will make it easier for those wishing to donate to do so!!! you do not have to be a member of paypal and you do not have to join. you can donate as much or as little as you would like and can use a credit card, debit card, or checking account. it is also encrypted for safety. you can also leave a nots to be sent with the card as well. Thanks for your care,consideration, and donations! they surely do appreciate it. i keep forgetting to tell you all to please pass along this blog to anyone you know who may be interested in praying or donating!!!

here is an email i received that was forwarded from one of ambers friends:

Brendon has been diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma or Non-Hodgkins Disease. Although cancer in general is pretty rare in children, if they do get it, this is a relatively common form for them to get. There are no known causes for lymphoma in children, they only think that it's probable cause is out of the millions of cells our bodies produce, one cell is malformed and reproduces causing the cancer. The Dr's assured Amber and Andy that it was not cause by diet, enviornment, genetics or anything that they could have possibly done. There is nothing they could have done to prevent this either. Of course we all know this but as a parent you ask yourself anyway so it was good for me to hear the doctor tell them this. The question was posed to the Dr as to about how long Brendon may have had this tumor growing and he wasn't sure but said maybe a few weeks to a few months. But the doctor also reassured Amber and Andy that catching it early or late didn't apply at all to cancer in children (even though it does very much in adults), specifically lymphoma. He said lymphoma symptoms are very non-specific

On Monday, 4/23/07, Brendon underwent surgery to remove the chest tube they had inserted to help drain fluid, insert a port (where his IV meds will be given) and also a bone marrow biopsy. The results from the bone marrow biopsy will be back sometime Tuesday. The biopsy was to see if the cancer had spread. We're all very hopeful that it has not. If it has though, the treatment will be the same, just more aggressive. They will be doing more tests over the next couple of days.

Treatment: Brendon will undergo chemotherapy treatment for approximately 2 years. The first 4 - 6 months will be pretty intense. Brendon is scheduled to receive his first dose of chemo on Wednesday 4/25/07. He will remain at Maine Medical Center for about 3 weeks from his first dose of chemo and then depending on how he is doing, will go home. The rest of the treatment will be primarily outpatient treatment in Scarborough . Treating this type of cancer is pretty tough, but Brendon 's odds are in his favor. They will not be doing anything surgical to treat the cancer, it will all be handled with chemo. Surgery is only to add/remove mechanical equipment such as the IV Ports or to make a diagnosis. Removal of lymphoma is typically not beneficial because of the type of cancer that it is. Radiation is not used to treat this type of cancer. The chemo will reduce the size of hte tumor pretty quickly. Brendon will receive the chemo either thru his IV port, orally or by chemo shots via spinal fluid. The SUPER thing about the treatment is that Brendon is receiving the same treatment here near his home as he would if he were sent to Boston or New York or anywhere else. This chemo regimen was developed by 240 hospitals nationwide networking together to come up with better treatments.

Side Effects: Brendon will almost surely lose his hair. A very small percentage of people don't, but it's almost certain that he will. Andy , Amber 's brother Tommy and her cousin Danny are all planning on shaving their heads in support of Brendon . Brendon will also experience nausea/vomiting but given his age, it's usually not too bad. The nausea typically gets worse with age so adults tend to have quite a bit where very young children tend to have none. Brendon is right in the middle where he will experience some. The third and worst side effect is low blood counts. The chemotherapy was designed to go into the blood and find rapidly growing cells. Unfortunately it cannot distinguish between cancerous cells and non-cancerous cells that just grow fast naturally, such as bone marrow cells. Bone marrow does reproduce quickly so the chemo may attack it. Brendon will be monitored closely to watch his blood and platelet counts. He may have to be given a transplant if his red blood count or platelet count gets too low. But they cannot transfuse white blood cells, so if his white blood count gets too low he may have to be hospitalized and given antibiotics to help fight any diseases. Given this information any people who are ill or children with fevers or unexplained rashes are asked to wait until they are better before going to see Brendon . Brendon will have a home nurse visiting twice a week. She will draw blood to monitor his counts. The other side effect to treatment is called Tumor Lysis Syndrome. As the cancerous cells are dying they release lysis into the system. The blood fights this but it can have a lot of stress on the kidneys. If there is too much stress on the kidneys, then dialysis is required. Brendon 's doctor expects only mild tumor lysis so hopefully it won't be a problem.

In the next day or so they will be doing more scans of Brendon . The treatment is generally so effective they expect results in the form of tumor size reduction ASAP. Brendon 's normal tissue will move into the open space where his tumor is as it shrinks. The cancer and chemotherapy should not affect Brendon 's overall adult growth much. He may be slightly smaller than he would have normally grown.

While Brendon is in the hospital and once he gets to his regular room out of the Special Care Unit (which will hopefully be today), he will be allowed to go to school in the classroom they have set up on that floor as he wishes. Some kids want to get back to a 'normal' life and some don't, so they are leaving it up to him. The Dr's estimate that Brendon will be out of school for about a month. At this point in time, he may very well be out for the rest of the school year, but again it's up to Brendon and how he's feeling about going back. The hospital provides a nurse/teacher liason who will go to Brendon 's school and talk to the students and teachers about Brendon 's condition and answer any questions they may have.

The odds are that Brendon 's tumor will just go away with treatment. Technically when his tumor is gone he will be in remission. He will always have to be checked though because it can come back, but the longer he goes without it, the better his chances are for remaining cancer-free for the rest of his life.

So that is all I have for info right now. You can go to www.mmc.org and there is a way to send an e-mail to Brendon and his parents. I don't have the direct link right now but I'm sure you can find it on there somewhere. You can also visit Amber 's MySpace page. She has not updated it recently because the hospital bloced access to it but you can post a message for them and she will get it sometime. As soon as I have the info for Brendon 's web page, I will forward that info.

Again, please send thoughts and prayers their way. Brendon , Amber and Andy are all doing amazingly well coping with this, but it gets tough. As you all know, Amber was going to school so she was not working anyway. Andy 's income was their only income. His employer has been fantastic about all of this and he is on FMLA right now but he will be unpaid for, I think they said, 3 weeks. They really do have an amazing support system and they aren't thinking about money right now at all but when they get home, it will hit them.

i also wanted to share a message i received from someone (just a reader of my blog, does not know them at all) who donated to brendon's family already:
please let them know that my girls are safe and healthy because of the kindess of many, many strangers.

i think many of us with multiples can relate to this, whether it was people in our church or complete strangers, please consider giving to them, and definitely continue praying! contact me at ds4nier@megalink.net with any questions!

p.s. my blog count was 75 total yesterday!!! wow!!

A Update ~ Kind Of!

Brendon and his mom ~ Amber

my mom received this email from Brendon's uncle's wife, so family! most of it is what we already knew just in more detail. here is the letter (i copied and pasted it so there is no mistakes on my part):

I haven't heard any new news yet today. All of his test results will bein today sometime. The only procedure he has had done so far is a biopsy. Today he will go into the operating room to have a shunt put in his chest,bone marrow removed, and to have a spinal tap. When we last spoke with the doctor his tumor is not the type that they can remove....no major surgery is planned at this time. His tumor starts in his chest and ends below his ribcage...it is not attached to any major organs....it is pressing on his heart, lungs, and stomach though and is causing some problems with his breathing. They had planned to start his chemo today. The family is doing as well as could be expected they are asking for prayers and lots of pictures,cards, and letters to put all over his walls. At this time they are asking that only family visit. Once he is up in the Barbara Bush wing visitors willbe able to see him. I will get an update later today and will email you tomorrow.

Thanks,

Heather

so, that is where we stand right now. if my mom receives an email from her tomorrow, then i will update again. i want to say thank you to those that have donated already. i received one via paypal and one will be mailing a check, plus what i intend to give. i am planning on giving them a walmart gift card as they will be able to use it for gas or anything they may need for traveling back and forth and the time they will spend visiting Brendon. i also wanted to throw out the fact that if you live near me, i would be willing to come pick up any money you want to include. please consider donating, every little bit helps!! again, thanks to those that have already helped and will help in the future! i plan on going to get the card on saturday afternoon.

p.s. my paypal email is ds4nier@megalink.net.

______________________________________________________________________

i wanted to mention that i have had the most ever people visit my blog today! i usually only have about 12-15 people and i'm not sure why i got a jump all of a sudden, but so far today i have had 67!!!! i couldn't think of a better time to have more people look at my blog, now we can have more people praying for Brendon and his parents!!!!

since this is a blog about my family, i would like to continue this with my regular update. from now on and as long as there is news, the news about Brendon will be first and then i will follow with updates on my family. so, here is the update, and pictures. today we got a taste of summer, temperatures reached 83 degrees!!!! we were finally able to put on some summer clothes and still be hot! the kids had fun playing outside. i took toya and kaylee to the dr.s today. toya has walking pneumonia and kaylee got some drops for her ears as they are very nasty! other than that, everyone seems to be doing ok. of course i expect to have more illness as the weather is yet again changing. we have more rain coming and temperatures are supposed to be in the 50's again. anyway, here is a slideshow of the kids from today:

Create Your Own

Anyone Want to Help?

First, if you didn't read yesterdays post, please go read that first so you know what i am talking about and then come back to this one!

This post is mainly for those who know Andy and amber, but if anyone else wants to help, they are more than willing to do so. I have been asked by a few people if there is anything they can do to help. here it is, two of my other classmates were talking and came up with this idea. I think it is an awesome idea and it gives those of us who don't see Andy and Amber, a chance to be a blessing and let them know that we are praying for them and especially for Brendon. Just for background info, they are a one income family. Amber was going to school to be a hairdresser, but obviously things will be put on hold. Andy will also be taking some time off work. Brendon will be in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks as of right now. They were planning to move to another state (can't remember which one) once summer came. The hospital Brendon is in is located in Portland, which is about 1 hour each way. This adds up very quickly with gas prices near $3 a gallon. the idea that they came up with was to buy them gas cards and dunkin donut cards. If this is something you would like to do, please contact me and i can give you their address. I also thought i would throw out the idea of sending the money via paypal to my email address and i will wait till this Saturday, April 28th and then take what money i get and will purchase a gas card for them. i will sign every one's name that helps out and if you would like to send along your own note, i will certainly print it up and put it in the card. like i said previously, this is for those that know Amber and Andy. i don't want people to think we are just asking for money from everybody. that being said, if there are people that do not know them, but just want to be a blessing to them during this time, you may feel free to do that as well. for those wishing to do the paypal route, my email address to send the money to is ds4nier@megalink.net . you can also contact me at that email address with questions as well. please do not feel like i am begging for money, this in no way goes to me, all of the money will go to help them out and if you would rather just send it to them yourself, you can certainly do that as well, just email me and i will get you the address. anyway, thanks again for reading this and for praying for Brendon. I'm sure they appreciate all the prayer they can get. I will try to keep the updates coming, but i have yet to hear of any test results. Thanks

VERY Important Prayer Request!!!

many of you either received and email from me or got a bulletin on my myspace, but for those who didn't, i thought what better way than to post a prayer request for this little boy. the little boy's name is brendon, and he is 9 years old! i graduated from high school with both of his parents and was once very close to both of them. obviously how things go when you graduate, we never really kept in touch on a regular basis and for that i am not proud. truth be told i don't think i have really kept in contact with anyone from high school. i often wish i had. anyway, she also has a myspace and posted this bulletin (this is an exact copy of the bulletin i received from amber (brendon's mom)):

Okay everyone. This is VERY hard for me to do but I am going to do it. Please, Please, please pray for my son Brendon. We are currently at Maine Medical Center where he was just diagnosed with cancer.... We are all very shocked by this news. I took him to the emergency room at 2:30 this morning because he was having chest pains. The x-ray revealed a very large mass in his chest. They took us to Maine Med by ambulance and performed surgery on him to see what the mass was. It turned out to be lymphoma. He will be having his bone marrow and spinal fluids tested tomorrow or Monday. He will have to have chemo-therapy... I'm not sure how long we will be here or how long the chemo-therapy will last, but we're told it will be a struggle.. We are hoping and praying for the best for our baby... I will keep you all posted as much as I can.

Thank you all for all that you do.. Give your loved ones a big hug and thank God that they are healthy.

Thank you for your prayers....

i have learned a little more today and wanted to post it here. this is also where you will see updates if there are any. i am not asking questions, just putting what was told to me. i will not go into great detail, but this will give you specifics on what to pray for. today we learned that the mass reaches from his heart and goes to the bottom of his rib cage. it has not attached itself to any of his organs as far as they can tell. they do not operate on this kind of tumor, they will try to shrink it with medication. he also started chemo-therapy today. they did several tests today and will know most of the results tomorrow. that doesn't mean that i will hear anything. i am not going to pester her for imformation as i know they are going through ALOT right now. as i hear things, i will update. i will also try to post a picture of him once i get approval from his mom. the last thing i want to do is overstep my boundries. my main reason for passing this on is because i think the more prayers he gets the better. everyone can use a little prayer and right now, he needs alot, whether you know him or not! so, please pray for him and his parents.

i know i promised pictures from the park, and i will put those here. the kids had fun and we stayed for two hours. it was nice getting together with a friend from the past. we are hoping to do it again soon! i apologize for not writing more, but i think the most important thing is the prayer request mentioned above. here are a few pics:

Kelsey (L) and Kaylee (R)

Kelsey and Jordan

Kaylee walking and Kelsey slidingKelsey (top), Latoya (middle), and Kaylee (bottom)
my friend miranda's little girl Olivia ~ she's 9 mo. she also has a 9 year old son, but he doesn't like his picture taken!

well, that concludes the post, PLEASE pray for Brendon!!!!!!

Video's!!!

we bought a trampoline with the net enclosure a few months back and we finally had a nice day to put it together! we got it all set up and the kids had about 10 min. to jump on it!! they loved it, and i can assure you that no children were harmed in the making of these videos!!! in fact, i don't think i heard any of them fight that whole time.....lol. i don't know how much you will be able to hear, but in the first video of the twins, they were giggling soooo much (you will see kaylee jumping on top of kelsey quit a few times). everytime she did, they would giggle!!! what great exercise for them too, and maybe me at some point :) just to clear something up, the reason the girls are crying on the second video (while they are sitting outside the net), is because i wanted them to let the older two jump for a little bit by themselves. as you can see in the video, kelsey makes her way to the door quit hastily and sneaky. alright, here are the videos:

also, we did end up at the dr.s yesterday and not only did jordan have an ear infection, but he actually had a double ear infection!!! the dr. could not beleive how bad his ears were. p.s. we are all still sick, and who wouldn't be when we go from 30 degrees to 70 in a day. today and the rest of the weekend is supposed to be near 70's. that's a heat wave for us!!!! we enjoyed it today and will again tomorrow, so look for some pictures as we will be going to the park. i will be meeting one of my friends from high school and she is bringing her two kids to play with my four. it should be alot of fun!!! well, have a great weekend!!!

Just a Few Fun Things!

well, we have all been sick, except my hubby! we are making a trek to the dr.s tomorrow for jordan as he was screaming that his ear hurt tonight! he is one of those that will wait until the pain is absolutely unbearable before he will "admit" that it is hurting him! i say admit because both my mom and i asked him earlier this weekend if it was hurting him cause we saw him playing with it. we knew it was, and he just wasn't telling us, cause that's how it always goes, but i just have to wait till he confesses it does, otherwise we would go into the dr.s and he'd say "nope it doesn't hurt." so, anyway, we will be going tomorrow to get medication i'm sure. we haven't been in a long time! we are also going to bring jordan and toya to go see firehouse dog for jordan's b-day tomorrow. we'll see how that goes with his ear infection!

next, i have a video of the falls yesterday when the roads were flooding. this river is normally very quiet and slow, but as you can see, it was not like that at all. plus there are two more pics of the roads (this road and the falls are right down the street from us) in the first picture, you can see the stop sign with the telephone pole, the telephone pole behind those is where the river is supposed to be!here are the pics, followed by the video:

here is a video that i took tonight of kelsey. she loves to put things in her pj's. it doesn't matter what, she puts anything she can find in there. if her pj's are easy to unzip, as these are, then you can be sure there is some toy in there. sometimes there is more than just toys as you will see (p.s. the medicine bottle is empty). before i was able to get my camera, she had already pulled out a toy train, and a medicine syringe. anyway, enjoy the video (it's a little dark, but you can see it). here is it:





next, are just some cool things i did on the interent. you put a photo in and then it will match your celebrity look alikes. jordan's only matched girls.....oops, and my identical twins, only matched one the same which was dakota fanning. it was cool though and something fun to do! here they are:

Flooding!

kelsey (L) and kaylee (R) ~ before church yesterday morning

i know some of you will recognize this picture from the other post last night, but i wanted to share it again as i wasn't sure it would be seen way at the bottom and since it was a birthday post, i didn't want to give the girls top picture. so anyway, here it is again. i LOVE this picture!!!

i know i was planning on posting more pretty snow pictures, but we didn't get nearly what we were supposed to get. we got rain, rain, and more rain!!! it is supposed to rain for the next couple of days as well!!! i took the kids out this afternoon to go see some of the rivers and streams and we found lots of roads starting to get covered and some already covered. we also saw one road that was about half the size it used to be because of the road washing away! it gave us something to do on this very rainy and dreary monday! i guess we won't be having a very fun "spring" vacation! here is a slideshow of some of what we saw while we were out and about:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

i also wanted to share something jordan said to me this afternoon. i had gone up to take a shower while the girls took their nap. i decided that since i wasn't really going anyway, i was going to put on some sweat pants and a sweatshirt. as i was coming down the stairs, jordan looked up and said "i like that" i said "like what", he said "i like your clothes, you look pretty". what a sweetheart, and i don't think he wanted anything either :)

jordan also had a major asthma attack last night and we all have colds, so the three younger ones are on the nebulizer three times a day once again. anyway, pray that it passes quickly!

*******PLEASE CHECK OUT MY FRIENDS BLOG THAT SHE JUST STARTED FOR HER TWINS AND OLDER DAUGHTER(I HELPED), THE ADDRESS IS : http://lovemytwingirls3.blogspot.com ************************

Happy 5th Birthday Jordan!!!

well, first of all, i have a few pictures i took of yet another april snow storm that we had on thursday/friday! they are very pretty. i'm sure we will have a few more pictures as we are having another storm tonight!!! will it ever end????

next of course is jordan's b-day! my little man turned 5 today! it doesn't seem possible. it was his first friend party, but we had bad timing and only one friend showed up. i didn't even think about the fact that this monday starts spring vacation, so all of his other friends went away on vacation! we will have to keep that in mind next year. he still had a fun birthday. him and his friend got along well and had fun together. i was more dissapointed in family i guess. it seems that most people think that buying them a present makes up for them not being there. my kids are not like that, although they like the presents, they would not even notice if someone didn't bring one. so, for someone to say "well, i can't come but i'll be sure to bring him a present" just bothers me ALOT!!!! most kids are definitely all about the presents, but we make ours about family and obviously family did not come through this time. the funny thing is that most of them either had no reason or stupid reasons!!! the only family that showed up were my mom, and my cousin sue. that's it. i can't even begin to explain how dissapointed i am. anyway, obviously family does not mean what it used to mean. anyway, here are some pictures. the first two are of when he was born, and then the ones from yesterday at his party!

Jordan arrived on a monday ~ april 15, 2002 @ 10:51 am. he was 2 1/2 weeks early and weighed 7lbs. 14oz. and was 20 3/4 in. long. he was my shortest labor and fastest birth and the biggest of all 4!! here are the two "Birthday" pictures:

right after birth ~ jordan and mommy going home ~ 2 days old

jordan today:
here are some from his party:



money from auntie sarah and uncle john :)
trains of course :)

Last but not least is a thank you from Jordan to auntie sarah and uncle john in north carolina (turn up your volume). p.s. he does say thank you to auntie sarah and uncle john, but i shut off the camera too early....oops :)

i took this picture this morning ~ kelsey (L) and kaylee (R)

Welcome ~ Benjamin James :)

this will be a quick update! we welcomed another baby into the family today!!! my second cousin had her baby boy today! i say second cousin, but we were more like cousins. she is my age and we grew up together! i am sooooo excited for them. he was three weeks early and was not exactly as she expected it to be. she had bad pains in her back during the night last night and then this morning went to the dr.s. they determined she had preeclampsia which very quickly turned into HELLP syndrome. here is a link to a article about preeclampsia and if you scroll down farther you will see the HELLP section: http://www.marchofdimes.com/pnhec/188_1054.asp


because of these complications, she was forced to have a c-section. Jason and Joleene welcomed Benjamin James into the world at 1:57 pm. He weighs 6 lbs. 3 oz. and is 19 3/4 in. long. he sure is a cutie. i have not been down to see him, but his favorite auntie was gracious enough to send me some pictures to put on my blog :). as of now, mom and baby are doing fine!!! i hope to go visit sometime tomorrow morning as we have more SNOW coming in april!!!

Here are some more pictures of the bundle of joy:


Joleene ~ aka Mommy holding her baby :)
Proud grammy holding her first grandbaby :)
been a long day ~ time for a nap :)
proud aunt sue holding her first nephew!!!

i also have to share this. my due date with my son jordan was may 3rd, and joleene's due date with benjamin was may 3rd. jordan was born on the april 15th and benjamin was born today. i thought it was pretty cool. too bad benjamin couldn't wait a couple more days, huh??? anyway, congrats to mom and dad!!!! he is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

i also thought i would clear something up for all. laura asked if the cousins in my daughters school were my cousins, or my daughters. they are in fact my cousins. i am the oldest grandchild on my mom's side and i am 29. my youngest cousin is 3! i had all of my 4 kids before any of them even started having kids. my grandmother had 10 children and my grandfather had 12 kids from a previous marriage, so that made 22 kids for my grandfather, plus he was ALOT older than my grandmother (i want to say about 30 years, i actually think it may have been more, but not sure). he has been gone for 12 years now. i have an uncle that is 6 mo. younger than me :). are you confised yet???? my mom (pregnant with her first (me) ~ oldest of grammy's kids) and my grandmother (pregnant with her last, my uncle) were pregnant at the same time and my mom gave birth first. it is kinda confusing, but cool. i like that our family is different. we are all quit close as well. it's nice to have a big family sometimes.

anyway, now that i have completely confused you all, i hope you have a great week!

History Fair!!!! (mostly pictures)

Toya's in the middle ~ i think she liked her job!!! :)

there was a history fair at toya's school today. toya's class did the history of america :) she got to be the statue of liberty!!! i took some pictures, and here are a few! my cousin is also in latoya's class and he was george washington!

my cousin michael (below)

i also have a couple of other cousins that go to the school and here they are with their projects:

this is jacob (cousin) and he is in 6th grade. the 5th and 6th grade did the depression. they made a whole town of cardboard houses, these were very cool and well put together!!!
jordan and jacob roasting a hot dog ~ can you tell jacob didn't want his picture taken!

jordan in one of the houses
the town ~ there are 2 houses you can't see

this is steven (cousin) ~ he is in 8th grade and did london

these next few are just pics of the girls and jordan that i took before the history fair. i am finally able to put all of the girls hair up in one ponytail and they look super cute, so i took pictures. their hair is so thin that it falls out in little time, so i have to either keep putting it up or spray it with hairspray. anyway, here are the pics:

kelsey (L) and kaylee (R) Kaylee, Jordan, and Kelsey
Kaylee (L) and Kelsey (R)

that is all for tonight! have a great week!! i hope you enjoyed the photo's!!!