Looking forward to a new year....

 

Wow, lots of news since last weeks post. We've celebrated Christmas, Elijah's birthday and now we bring in the new year.  Instead of having dinner here on Sunday, we decided to combine the New Years celebration with the birthday boy's dinner.  I asked him if that would be ok and that I was going to cook a turkey with his choice of side dishes.  "Sure", he said, "I'd like shrimp, mashed potatoes and some good green beans". Brad got a big laugh out of that!  I think he could eat shrimp with every meal!  In a few hours of posting this, the house will be filled with the luscious smell of turkey roasting.  It sounds especially nice, considering how cold and frosty it is as I write this.  It is currently 3 degrees and this is how it looks out my back door...BRRRR....
This week we had two appointments with Brad's two new doctors, Dr. Douglas Ney at University Hospital and Dr. Petit in Ft. Collins.  They were both amazing doctors (of course, we were referred to them by Dr. Amazing himself, Dr. Wazari!)  Dr. Ney was so interesting (he is the neuro-oncologist) in that he has tourettes syndrome, which in the beginning, we found somewhat distracting.  He informed us that the pathology came back on the tumor, and of the two basic types that this could have been, Brad's was fortunately the type that responds well to chemo and radiation.  He then lined out what the treatment would consist of and wrote the prescriptions for the chemo drug.  Our kids were so thoughtful, and gave us a Christmas gift of a "date night" at the downtown Denver Embassy Suites, with a meal at the Chop House. We had a lovely evening (even though we got a call from Carrie regarding the cost of the chemo drug-$18,000 for a 30 day supply!!!!!...before insurance) and decided that we would use our dinner gift when Brad was finished with his treatment and when we really will celebrate!  Yesterday, we saw Dr. Petit (the radiation-oncologist)...a very long appointment, (at which he confirmed the positive diagnosis of the type of tumor)
 made doubly long as Brad was suffering a horrible headache.  As soon as we got out to the parking lot, he threw up.  We were all really concerned for him, but he did seem better by the end of the evening.  Needless to say, we didn't have a wild New Years Eve!

We've had a great week with the family.  Sunday night the girls (Emma, Sophie and Gabi) had a slumber party here as I had promised them they could do that over the Christmas break.  Emma is unbelievably patient and is so good with the girls.  She brought over makeup, nail polish and hair stuff. They ate lots of snacks, determined to make it until midnight to sleep.  At about 11:15, Emma came into our bedroom to let us know that Sophie wanted to go home, so Amie came and picked her up.  The other two were asleep about a minute later!

They looked beautiful in their makeup!
 



Gabi had to go to daycare the following morning, so Emma did her hair and makeup!

On Saturday, Elijah had his birthday party at the Laser Tag in Loveland (the second year in a row for that location!  I can see why, though, because the kids really do have a great time there).  Some of his school friends were there as well as his cousins.

The whole group in the Laser Tag

As I close, I just feel the need to add one more picture.  This was taken Saturday, when we returned from Elijah's party!  Pretty self explanatory!
Happy 2013!