Great news coming into the Christmas season!

Ellie went to another MRI update last week.  She had a clear MRI!! We got to see the MRI pics on the computer with the resident afterward. It was my first time seeing an MRI of her brain since the first one where they showed us the tumor. It was neat and helpful to see the area (cavity) where the tumor was but being able to see it empty! Later that day Ellie went to her first face therapy with an occupational therapist. She is working on stretching her face muscles she hasn't used since the tumor was removed in May 2009. The therapist could tell they were tight. We are working on stretches this first month. Then she goes back in January to learn the next step of therapy.

In January she also sees the pediatric neurosurgeon that did her tumor removal surgery.  He hasn't seen her in years. He may be quite surprised how she looks. I hope he is happy about her improvement. Here is a current picture of her.

She has matured a lot. I love who she has become. I wouldn't change a single bit about her!! Love her and Thank God for her often!!

Here are my two goof balls!

Bus and plane pics.

Kids were all smiles getting up very early to go to Disney!! Every morning for a week the first thing Nathan would ask me when he woke up is, "are we going to Disney today?" It was so cute. I was excited for the day to come where I could say yes. Then Ryan got him up that morning, but I caught a picture of his smile!!

 Here is Ellie when I woke her.

Early 7:30am Sunday, Sept. 26th we were at the buses getting on to begin our vacation to Disney World in Florida!!

 We all got special name tags which identified who we were and which bus we were supposed to be traveling on.

 Waiting in line to board our first plane in Moline, IL to fly to Atlanta, Georgia. Ellie has her bag of goodies and games Remax Real Estate Company made for all the kids that were chosen for the trip.

Delayed airplane made us anxious to keep traveling. You can tell Ryan looks like he's just ready to get on with it. 

 On the plane excited to go!!

 I love this picture of Ellie.

I noticed I started this a long time ago so I'll post this and try to get on here to post more pics from our Magical Mix kids trip to Disney a year ago.

Long overdue update

Well I see I haven't posted since August. Ellie had an MRI two weeks ago and it was clear! Praise God for good results!! Next Month we take her to Iowa City for potentially her last eye appointment for a long time.  Since the last time we went they decreased her patching to 3 hours a day. So we have done that for 3 months. Hopefully her eye sight stayed at 20/25 and we can be done patching.  It seems her eye is staying pretty moist itself.  She still gets eye drops every two hours.  The doctors are hoping to be able to reduce that amount also.  Her eye has been looking great! Life seems much more normal finally.  Only doctor's appointments every 3-4 months has been nice.  Ellie's school year has started out great! She's still loving it!

Nathan is good at daycare/preschool also. I joined his class on a fun trip to a pumpkin farm last week. Fun times! He is POTTY TRAINED!! We LOVE IT!! He was ready for sure!!

Ellie's birthday is coming up and she is super excited! Already making lists of adults and kids she wants to invite.  She just can't decide what she wants to do.  Possibly another swim party. She decided to ask for donations for the Ronald McDonald House again this year.

Happy fall everyone!! I give thanks this Thanksgiving for all of you, your support and your prayers. LOVE YOU ALL!!

Great news!

Well we have been two Iowa City multiple times since my last post.  This last time, two weeks ago, was great news! Ellie had been battling a big red spot on her eye and the eye doctor brought in a specialist to look at it and he said she had a flick tenule. What does that mean you ask? It's inflamation and needs steroids and antibiotics for treatment. So we got put on more eyedrops and different ointment at night. This is good news because we figured out the redness isn't from dryness! So we can back off from eyedrops every hour to every two hours and see if the dryness is ok.  The other news was better news!! She got 20/20 minus half the line when looking through a black thing with lots of tiny holes!! She hasn't ever been to 20/20 yet. Without the black thing with holes she got 20/25 minus half the line. This was good improvement! Exciting! So we have been patching still and hope to get better results when we go Thursday to Iowa City to check the flick tenule and eyesight. Hope to get better news. Her eye isn't red anymore so the meds have helped.

We had a great time at Relay for life of Black Hawk County!! The kids had fun with family and the UNI Volleyball team. We got great pictures I'll post when I get them scanned into the computer.

This labor day weekend we get to go to family camp at Village Creek Bible Creek! We are looking forward to a fun weekend there!

Ellie is our brown little raisin minus the wrinkles.  She has been at Camp Cedar Falls all summer and swimming two times a week. Her hair has lightened also.  This last week they got to go to Lost Island in Waterloo alone with two days at The Falls. She is waterlogged and happy to take a break from swimming.

Now school starts on the 17th and she is excited!! We are getting some tax free weekend shopping in this weekend to prepare for school. I'm glad this return of the 80s fashion hasn't sparked Ellie's eye. YIKES!! is all I have to say about that.

Thank you all for your continued prayers for her progress!

MRI coming up

Sorry but this is going to be a quick update. I know it's been a while but I'll get back on later this week.  Just wanted to let everyone know a couple things;

We will be participating as Team Ellie again this year in Relay For Life Black Hawk County June 17-18. If anyone is interested in joining us or donating please let me know and I can help get you where you need to go. Or you can get info on the Relay for Life Black Hawk County webpage: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=29905

Ellie has an MRI this week Wednesday, June 1st. We will give you an update on that and her eye progress soon!

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend! WE DID!!

eye update!

Today we went to Iowa City for a one month update to see how patching is going. We weren't sure what to expect because a couple weeks ago when we did the computer eye exam she got a 1 in her left eye and a 4 in her right eye.  1 is the best and 5 is the worst.  After this I didn't have much confidence we were going to get good news today. But we did!! Her left eye is still 20/20 and her right eye is now 20/25. The best it has ever been since brain surgery is 20/30. This patching is working great and she has been such a good sport about wearing it. She has pretty patches that she tries to match to her clothes every day. We go back in another month, on May 25th, to see if there is more improvement.

After appointments we usually go to the Coral Ridge Mall for Ellie to play in the kids play area. By the end Ellie usually asks to be carried on Ryan's shoulders.  Here they are as we walk out.

pirates and birthdays!

I wanted to share something cute that happened Tuesday night.  We went to dinner with my parents and Javier, Stephanie, Hudson and Tenley. When Hudson saw Ellie wearing her eye patch he quickly handed out pictures he had colored for us and said pirate when he handed Ellie's picture to her.  Then he quietly said to Stephanie that he wanted to be a pirate like Ellie.  I thought it was so cute. I hadn't thought about Ellie being a pirate. Ellie didn't have any response when Hudson said he wanted to be a pirate like her. She doesn't think it's funny and it doesn't make her upset. Kind of odd to get no response from her about something.

Ryan gave me a card this morning and it was hilarious so I wanted to share it.

For my wife on her birthday.
The top 10 things I don't say often enough...

10. I hate to miss the game, but this floor could really use a good scrubbing.
9. Why don't you buy a nice new pair of shoes to go with that outfit.
8. Let's rent a romantic movie. If I see one more car chase, I'm gonna hurl!
7. Yeah, I'm pretty tired, too, so let's just cuddle.
6. Why can't they show real-looking women in those lingerie catalogs?
5. My thumb's getting tired. Would you mind holding the remote for a while?
4. I'm not sure we've seen enough family lately.
3. You got enough blankets over there?
2. Sure, I'll be glad to hold your purse while we're standing next to this construction site.
1. I'll love you forever! (and I sure hope you know it!)

This was funny to me.
It was nice to start my day off laughing!

I did have a spectacular birthday! I took the day off to pamper myself since I had some gift certificates to use up.  I got a pedicure with a friend Hannah, then had lunch with Hannah and Collette, visited Ellie at school for a little while then went to a massage! The whole day was wonderful. Ended it with a fun evening outside on this beautiful day with the fam.  It was a blessing to have Facebook today also.  So many friends wished me a happy birthday. It made me feel so loved and special.  Thank you all, everyone out there, thank you!

Happy 76th Birthday Dad on Thursday, March 31st

Happy Birthday to Ellie and Nate's cousin Ethan on April 1st!
and Happy Birthday to Hudson on April 9th!