Trip to Sea World

On Saturday, we went to Sea World for a few hours. We took Marissa and she experienced riding a roller coaster for the first time. We think she enjoyed it because Michael convinced her to go on 3 rides. She got him back when she made him go on the water ride and he got soaked. Rachel and I checked out the animal exhibits while the 2 of them went on rides. We saw 2 shows and Rachel liked them a lot.




After they passed us on the boat, Rachel started running along side the river to try and catch daddy. She was pretty mad when she didn't catch up.

Christmas dinner with friends

We had a dinner and present exchange with some friends of ours. We went over to Amber and Robbie's house and they have a 3 year old son Ashton that Rachel plays with occasionally. The kids are pretty much content to play on their own but it's pretty entertaining to watch. Jenny and Joey were also there and we all had a good time.

Rachel actually tried to eat some of the ham.
Jenny, Amber, and me. We have been friends since we were little.

Jenny reading to Ashton.

Cade & Callie's Jumping Jym party

Cade and Callie had a joint birthday party on the 7th. It was at a jumping gym full of jumping castles. Rachel was scared the whole time and didn't last very long at the party despite Michael's and papa's efforts to get her to have fun. She doesn't like trying new things.




Marissa and I made and decorated this cake for Callie. Each of them had their own cake.

Callie's first birthday

December first was Callie's first birthday. Anna and mom brought the kids over and then we went to Chuck E Cheese. The kids had fun but it cut into naptime so Rachel had a few breakdowns! Cade and Callie were their usual happy wild selves!


Rachel kept telling Chuck E her name was Wachel and she also kept introducing Wewe (Sweetie)
She didn't like that Callie got the presents not her! She threw this one at Callie after I wouldn't let her open it.

Running In Circles

This post by Aunt Anna:
I was trying to film Callie walking today but caught Rachel running in circles. It was too cute not to share, she is so funny. Sorry you have to turn your head to the left to view, I am new at this.

Latest MRI

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things have been pretty crazy!! We had another MRI on Nov. 6th. We got more good news that her cancer has not grown at all since the last MRI. We are thrilled with this news and the doctors have been pretty much amazed with Rach. When they told us she had cancer there was a 1 in 4 chance that she could survive it at her age and the doctors are pleasantly shocked that she's not only surviving but thriving. She is gaining weight at a good rate thanks to the G-tube and she's running around like a normal 2 year old. We have not had to give her any pain meds in months and none of the doctors thought that she'd be able to walk without them! She is in physical therapy and she just got moved from 2 days a week to one because they don't think she needs as much help anymore. The chemo combo that she takes is a relatively new one and that has really helped her beat the odds. Traditionally, her tumor type couldn't be stopped with chemo and her tumor has not grown very much at all (less than 10%) this whole year. We feel truly blessed that she's doing so well and we appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers- please keep it up because it's working!

It's another girl :)

My pregnancy has been going good so far. No complications or problems have arisen. The baby is getting big, as you can tell from the pics of me on the blog! We found out that we are having another girl and we're very excited that Rach is going to have a sister. We don't know how much of it she understands but she pats my belly all the time and says, "baby". I hope she'll be that nice when her sister arrives in February! We haven't decided on a name but there are a few that we really like.

Day outside in the Hill Country

Michael took last Monday off and we went with his parents and some family friends, the Garcias, to Lost Maples State Park and Fredericksburg to do some shopping. Cade came too because his parents were out of town. The kids had a great time and they wore themselves and us out!!

Shopping in Fredericksburg




Hiking at Lost Maples way out in the Hill country. It was beautiful with all of the trees changing colors for fall- we're not used to that!





Cade wasn't sure why Rach was falling behind!


Cade had fun riding on Mike's shoulders.

Cade was a little too big for the stroller but Rach prettty much lives in hers and was not going to part with the big one!




She was very excited to run around after the 1 1/2 hr. car ride
Dad, I'll drive us home!