Thanksgiving recap

We are home again after another great Thanksgiving in Dallas. Unfortunately our drive to Dallas did not turn out so well, but the rest of the weekend was great. It is always a gamble on the drive to Dallas. In theory, it is a ~8 hr trip (including one ~15 min stop). The stop half way through the trip can last 10 minutes or 1.5 hours depending on the kids moods and how desperate we are to get out of the car. In addition, we are never quite sure what natural disasters or human disasters we will run into on I-35 (always exciting...well, not so much). This time it was an overturned semi-trailer one hour south of Oklahoma City. This stopped us for 2.5 hours as the interstate was completely shut down. Let me tell ya, there is not a lot of things to do in Pauls Valley, OK!! Not that we had the opportunity because we were stuck with thousands of our Turkey Day traveling friends. Very long trip short, we made it to Dallas and had a great Thanksgiving!
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
We love going to the Gaylord Texan hotel over Thanksgiving/Christmas time. The decorations/atmosphere are amazing and the kids love it. It was definitely the highlight of the trip! Above is Fintan getting ready to feast on the buffet!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Grandma and Grandpa resting at the saloon with the grandkids.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Maeve working her smile for the camera.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Aidan (with a snarly Fintan in the background) looking mature as always.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Maeve in her picture day dress. We attempted to get a family portrait today at my least favorite place (Protr@it Innov@tions) and after waiting 40 minutes after our appt time with 2 families left in front of us and thousands of screaming kids (okay, maybe not thousands, but it sure seemed like it!) we gave up on the portrait idea. We opted to try and get a family picture at the Gaylord that would work for our Christmas card. Usually this is a near impossible task to get all the kids smiling at once, but I think we did okay (and we saved a few $$$ by ditching the studio photos!).
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Cian checking out some of the trains.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

One of our Christmas card options. This one wasn't the best, but some of the others were pretty good. You will have to wait and see the final product in the mail (if you are one of the lucky ones to receive a card...I'm sure you are crossing your fingers as I type!).

.

I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful too and filled with great memories!

News

We got some good news on the cancer front today. My dad's cancer has not spread!! He has a few treatment options to choose from and it sounds like he is leaning towards radiation vs. surgery. We are so thrilled to get this news. While is radiation treatment will be somewhat difficult, I'm sure, the end results sound wonderful.

My mom was able to get her biopsy done today too. She met with her surgeon this morning and while they were planning to do a needle biopsy in the office, the plans changed after talking for awhile. The surgeon felt more comfortable taking my mom to the OR and getting a larger biopsy. I'm not sure the exact reasoning behind all this, but it sounds like this process will yield a more definitive diagnosis. I am very nervous about the results, but also ready to see the whole picture so we can move forward. We will not have more information for 3-5 days, so the waiting continues. The waiting/work up period is painful!

Thanks for the prayers and good thoughts so far. Keep them coming!

Prayers wanted

The past 7 days have been whirlwind in our lives and I would like to ask all of you out there in blog land (whether we know you or not) to offer up some prayers on my parent's behalf. My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer last Friday. He underwent some additional scans this week to make sure the cancer has not spread. We will get those results on Monday. If it has not spread (for which we are very hopeful) then treatment seems fairly straight forward with a great prognosis. Yesterday, my mother was told she has breast cancer. This has completely devastated us and thrown us off our axii. How can this happen?! Both diagnosed with cancer within 7 days of each other? We are right in the mix of her work up and diagnosis and will hopefully know more information next week. We were told to show up for a biopsy today, but due to some very poor communication between physicians, there was no biopsy ever scheduled. Until she has the biopsy we will not know what we are dealing with; i hate the waiting game. This brief experience has made me so frustrated with adult health care. I have spent my career thus far working in pediatric health care and a little in oncology. There are always little glitches in communication, but it is so irritating to be told to show up on a Saturday morning for a biopsy only to find out the office is not even open and the on call physician has no idea about your identity. Adult health care has much to be desired.



Anyway, until we find out all our answers we could use your prayers. We have no idea what road(s) we will have to travel with both of these diagnoses and that is pretty scary. Even with all this going on, we have so much to be thankful for this next week. We have each other and a great support group outside of our families. Hopefully we will have more news (good news!) after this week!!

Happy Birthday Cian

Cian rang in his 6th year with a pirate party. This was probably our *best* at home party yet. We had just enough activities to hold the boys' attention yet enough play time to let them run wild. Again, we had freakishly warm weather so that allowed the entire party to be outside. It was a great day for a great kid!
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
6 year old Cian next to his pirate cake. Notice the candles acting as cannons out the side of the cake.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
A smattering of the pirates that raided our house.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
We were able to drag out the pinata activity for about 30 minutes. Perfect!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Make a wish.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Cake all around, matey!

Halloween Haunts

Once again I have been slacking on the blog front. Busy life I guess. Anyway, we had a great Halloween. The weather has been exceptionally warm lately so it made for a perfect night. We had our usual chili party and a houseful of friends and family. Due to our schedules we were unable to have an official party for Maeve's birthday (back on October 2) so we decided to celebrate on Halloween. All the kids have had an Elmo cake on their 2nd birthday, so we kept up that tradition and Susie made an Elmo cake for Maeve.

Aidan was much more into Trick or Treat this year and I think he would have gone for hours had we let him. Cian and Fintan we only semi-impressed, but they made it about one block. Maeve didn't understand at all, but enjoyed some of the benefits (the candy). All in all it was a great night. Now all the Halloween decorations have been put away and we are almost ready to bust out the *tree*!!
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Fintan (Luke Skywalker) and Cian (Darth Vader...the mask was too constricting for his taste)
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Maeve not quite understanding why everyone is singing to her. She managed to blow the candles out with some help from Aidan and friends.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Maeve (Princess Leah)
.
.
.
.
.
.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The Star Wars gang. Aidan was a Clone Trooper (???)