My Man

Austin turned 10 months on June 28th

(Playing in grandma and grandpa's driveway. The kids love to flood it! We did it when we were little too, it's big fun!)

I can't believe he will be 1 in 2 months. I adore him. How couldn't you? Just look at that face!

About my guy at 10 months old:

• He pulls himself up on everything. He LOVES to stand and always gets a giant smile on his face when he gets up. The only problem is he 's not very good at getting back down. It usually ends in tears.
• He still thinks Millie is the Bees Knees, but just when I think his smile can't get bigger it always does when Brady comes home from work.
• He is doing a lot less army crawling and more BIG BOY crawling.
• He LOVES his food. If you don't feed him fast enough he will dive for it.
• He HATES his car seat. I have to hold him down to get buckled.
• Still putting everything in his mouth.
• He doesn't like bananas, but loves green beans.
• If I'm holding him and he hears Millie's voice he spazzes trying to find her.
• He likes to empty shelves and climb into them. His favorite spot is our TV stand.

Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover

I was at Target yesterday when I noticed a woman that well to be honest was kind of scary. She was covered in piercings and drenched in tattoos from head to toe. She looked like someone you wouldn't want to mess with.

We were there for awhile browsing around when I heard a voice from behind me ask what my daughters name was. When I flipped around I was taken off guard when I saw it was the very same woman I had noticed earlier. I told her Amelia, and she said, "Amelia; I will pray for Amelia". I couldn't help but start crying.

Never under estimate the kindness of strangers.

It's Late and I'm Tired

I want nothing more then to go to bed, but I feel like I need to write. Write what I don't really know. Today was a big day though and it deserves acknowledgement whether I am in the mood or not.

MILLIE STARTED MAINTENACE TODAY!

It has been 6 months and 6 days since we received Amelia's diagnosis. My child has been through Hell and back and is stronger for it. She is a fighter, she is resilient, she is positive, she is silly, she is my Millie. I didn't mean to rhyme but it works.

What does all of this mean? Well, she still takes a whole crap load of of drugs but we don't have to go to clinic as much and her doses are lower.

Miss Millie's Maintenance Schedule:

Daily: 6-MP

Weekly: Methotrexate (once a week at home and once every 3 months in her spinal fluid)

Septra (2x a day for 2 days a week)

Monthly: Vincristine (given through her PORT, this is our hospital day)

Dexamethosone/Steroid (2x a day for 5 days every month)

This will be our life for the next 2 years.

On a side note: Amelia's hair should start growing back, we'll just have to wait and see...

Playing Catch Up

Saturday Millie was asked to do the Coin Toss at the Utah Blaze Game. She had so much fun! She skipped all the way on and off the field. Sadly we didn't get to stay for the whole game because she had been really naughty earlier in the day, but it was still a fun night.

Ashlee (Brady's cousin) and Millie

She is a Blaze dancer

Our excited little one.

Father's Day was perfect. Well for me it was, I hope Brady feels the same. :) Brady slept in while we made breakfast. We made a display of Brady's favs: Biscuits in Gravy, Hash browns, Sausage, and Cherries. Then we headed to church to watch Millie in their Father's Day Program. She only knew one song, but she was still as cute as can be. That is until she had a full blown tantrum and we had to drag her out. I had flash backs of when we lived in England and she'd scream bloody murder in the stores. We visited both our Papas and since I got him movie passes we went and saw the A-Team, he had been dying to see it. I have to admit that it was pretty funny. He also got to go golfing, it was a fun weekend.

Grandma Jager and Austin BoBoston

We got my dad a gift card for the Sugar House BBQ Company (he loves ribs) and Brady's dad a certificate to do iFly.

Grandma with the kiddos.

Friday Millie and I went to the Make A Wish building and she made PopArt with a company called Abracadoodle. It was really fun and her flag turned out really cool. I'll have to take a picture of the finished project.

Millie Update:

We took her blood counts today and they were great!

WE START MAINTENANCE TOMORROW!

I'll let you know how it goes.

Pretty Boy

Some Familar Faces

i LOVE this family and have missed them so much. We met the Swintons in England when Brady and Stan were working on their MBAs at Oxford. They are living in Australia now and we were so happy to get to see them today.

Mary (she is one day younger then Millie), Olivia (6), Millie

Eisha, Brady, Stan

They also have a little boy named Thomas, but I didn't get any pictures :(

*Thanks for visiting Guys; I know you had A LOT of people to see!

You can't tell...

Or it won't come true.

I can't believe it

The Past 6 Months

I have such mixed emotions tonight. Millie got her last dose of chemo today before she goes into Maintenance; she still has chemo pills for a week but I feel like we have reached the end of the beginning. If that makes sense.

I have hated witnessing my oldest child go through so many horrific things, but at the same time the poisons that have been pumped through her tiny, little system are the same poisons that have kept her cancer away. I'm terrified and ecstatic all at the same time.

We still have A LOT of chemo a head of us. Amelia will have to take 6-MP at home every single day, along with steroids 5 days out of the month. She will also be going to the hospital once a month for more chemo. This will go on for the next 2 years of her life. She was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (A.L.L.) at 4 years old and she will finish with everything around the time she turns 7. My little girl will be 7. 7, that is so old, she will be so big. It's not fair that a chunk of her childhood will be tainted with this. The only thing I can say is she will have a record of how many people truly love her and support her. One day she can look back and know that there were hundreds of people praying for her health. We appreciate your support and I hope you continue to follow us over the next part of our journey.

I still can't believe it. I don't know whether I should be crying tears of joy or sadness. I just know I'm crying.

A.L.L. Fact: Cancer in children and adolescents is rare. But, A.L.L. is the most common cancer in children representing 23% of cancer diagnosed among children younger than 15 years of age. It occurs in about 1 of every 29,000 children in the United States each year. They can not explain why one person gets leukemia and another does not.

Make A Wish!

WE HAVE BIG NEWS!

Millie was nominated by our homehealth nurse, Dylan, to MAKE A WISH!

We are so excited for her! Life has been more then unfair to her the last 6 months plus if you count everything she went through with Austin. We are so grateful that she is going to be able to have her Wish Come True!

It was such an amazing experience for her, along with Brady and I. When we arrived there was this sign that said, "Welcome to the Wishing Place Amelia". I immediatly started crying.

We were too busy taking in every moment and I didn't take too many pictures.

Next they took us all out to their wishing pond where we were given a special wishing token. All of us were able to make a wish in the pond. Then we went upstairs and played some games with Millie so they could get to know her and figure out what her True Wish would be. She came up with dancing with the Princesses, Having a Picnic with them, and swimming with the Princesses.

They had mailed us a special key to their wishing tower and Millie carried it around on a necklace. She was so excited when it came time to use it.

The room was full of fun lights that would change colors and a waterfall in the middle. When we entered Brady and I read our own wishes to Millie, it was very personal and a lovely moment with our family.

In the middle of the room there was a cone for Millie to submitt her wishes to the Wishing Wizard. When she placed them inside The lights started going crazy!

It was truly a magical evening. Millie is so deservings of this and I can't wait for her party when they will announce what she will be doing.

(They have talked to Brady and I and it looks like they will be sending her to Disney World to be with the princesses and have a week of being a "normal" kid)

Millie placing her wishes in the cone for the wizard.