The Harvest

This cool machine is what is collecting my stem cells from my blood. It's called harvesting. See the red bag on the far right. There are over 15,000,000 stem cells in there! As soon as we were done, they took my stem cells and froze them so cold it would make your nose fall off. Now my body has to do more drugs to kills the cancer disease and then they will thaw my stem cells and put them back. That will happen the week before Christmas. Pretty amazing Christmas present huh!?

To get all these special cells, the machine had to suck them out of my bones, so now my bones are very sore. If I were a bone I wouldn't be too happy about someone sucking my insides out either!!

In this picture I still have some hair, but not anymore! Now I am bald as your Uncle Peter, except he's a man and looks good bald. I look funny, cause girls usually have some hair! There are still some little hairs in the way of spiderman stickers, but I'll bet by Christmas we can put the stickers on.

Picture for Grandma

Dear Grandma Becki,

I love you two hundred all the way up to the whole world!  Up to the airplanes!  Up to the jet planes!  Up to the computer!  I drawed this picture all night long to you.  It is a picture of a monster ponster!  I'm going to Moab for two hundred days.  We're going to play, play, play all day and go in the Jeep and on hikes and ride bikes and rock dinosaur bones.  Because they stepped in the mud, dinosaurs.  I miss Grandma Becki and I'll give stickers to you all night long and put stickers on your head.  Yesterday I had a Thanksgiving party at school.  We ate turkey and mashed potatoes and corn and everything.  All the stuff that they brought there.  I just ate the corn because I didn't like the mashed potatoes or anything else.  I love you, Grandma Becki!  I want to see you again forever ever! 

Love, Nathan

Nate's family

Dear Grandma Becki,

I went to school.  I did art.  I colored a picture of my family I am very thankful for.  9ikmnbvgdwsaz (Nate wanted to type)  I want to eat Skittles.  I walked home in the stroller.  Then we went on a walk with Stacy and little Nathan and went to the park.  I went to the park and went down slides and bides and mides and kides.  Grandma Becki liked when I sing to her on the phone.  I saw you last night.  I love you.  I love you, Grandma Becki.  I want to play with you all day.  

Love, Nathan

Forts and dishwashers

Nate hanging out in his fort

Outside view of the fort

Hi Grandma Becki! 

We had so much fun seeing you tonight, even if it was only for a few minutes.  It was good just to be in the room with you.  Nathan was so excited to see his Grandma Becki.  You know how you used to write in Brett's journal for him every day when he was a kid?  Well, we are doing that with Nathan now.  This is what he wrote tonight:

"Today I don't go to school.  I went in a fort and builded a fort out of blankets and chairs and pillows.  I played Curious George on your computer today.  I saw Grandma Becki and she was bald.  Brookie cut Grandma Becki's hair off 'cause she had to take that yucky medicine that will make her hair fall out so Brookie cut it.  Curious George was hopping around for a long time.  And that's what I did today.  The end.  Nothing else."

The other day when we were journaling, I asked, "What do you think about Grandma Becki?" and this was his reply:  

"I love her.  I love Grandma Becki, I love Grandma Becki.  She's sick and she can't get out of bed forever.  She's going to get all better.  I love Grandma Becki and I want to come see you when you feel better.  Grandma Becki is not feeling well.  She can't get out of bed until she feels better".

Nate sure thinks the world of you!  And he can't wait until you are "all better".

As for Ty, here is a picture of him with his very favorite toy.  He can be across the room playing with toys.   I'll open the dishwasher and he zooms on over.  He cries whenever I close it!  Now if only I could get him to load and unload while he's at it...

Milestones

Ty is growing up so fast! Here are short clips of some of his recent milestones:

Walking: He could do it if he really wanted to, but he's so fast crawling that he doesn't seem to care. The first part of the video is a botched attempt, the second is success! I suspect one of these days, he'll be up and running!




Dancing: We were listening to "Life is a Highway" (from the movie "Cars") when we noticed Ty was dancing to the music. If you look (and listen) carefully, you'll notice that he is even singing along!


Fishy face: Ty can tell you what a fishy "says":

No spice for me, thanks

Dear Grandma Becki,

My mom made some spicy chili the other night and gave me some of the meat and beans out of it.  I liked it then, but that night I squirmed and moaned and cried most of the night.  So I'm with you for now-- no spice!

Love, Ty

Snow boys

Ty's first real snow experience!

Nate with his snowman

What kind of weird person is this?

Purple hair and kisses

On November 1st, the Saturday before Becki started chemo, we all got together at Becki's house for a hair-chopping party.  We bathed the boys right before we left, and when we got there, we took anti-bacterial wipes and wiped down Ty's neck and behind his ears so Grandma Becki could kiss him in her favorite spot one more time before he really became off-limits.  

Becki hugged Nate one last time while he was still relatively germ free.

Then the hair-cutting began!  Brooke and Shellie cut off the long strands first, for Kim to save.  Nate got to cut the first piece:

  This gave Becki a sweet mullet:

Brooke was a little nervous because she didn't know exactly what she was doing, or even hoping to end up with.  And Grandma Jones didn't help, as she screeched in horror every time Becki's hair got shorter and shorter!  

But Brooke's talent prevailed, and Becki ended up with a fabulously stylish configuration of hair.  Way to go Brooke!  There's a reason she's our hair cutter!

Now, when Becki gave Nathan the choice of whether she should dye her hair purple or not, she had to know there was really no choice.  Is there anything cooler than seeing your grandma with purple hair?  I don't think so!  Nate was so excited to spray Grandma Becki's hair purple.  And look how cute it turned out!

Nathan had so much fun being with Grandma Becki one last time before she became truly quarantined.  We were all so glad it was such a beautiful day that we could all go visit and participate in the momentous event! 

Nate had so much fun that this was his prayer at family prayer the next day:  First he thanked Heavenly Father for the food (as always) and then these are his words, verbatim:  "We're thank Thee that we could spray Grandma Becki's hair purple and we're thank Thee that we could go to Grandma Becki's house one more time".  And that was the whole prayer.  Nate sure thinks the world of his Grandma Becki.  He can't wait to be able to see her again.

Yucky coughing

Hi Grandma Becki,

Nathan was so excited to read your blog today.  He thought it was very funny that you were eating baby prunes and he was very interested in the picture of you in the hospital.  Sorry we haven't posted anything for a couple of days.  We spent the weekend at James and Charmaine's house.  Unfortunately Nate had a bad bout of croup while we are there, but he is doing lots better.  

We hope you are still doing well.  Yay- you are off the chemo for a little while!  We printed off some pictures for your "motivation board".  Hopefully we can get them to you soon.  I will have Nate "write" you tomorrow for sure.  We love you!

xoxoxoxoxox

Jess, Nate and Ty

Prunes!!!

Dear Ty Guy,

Look, even I have to eat yucky prunes!!!! Mooly said I'm a real slob and get it all over my face, just like someone else I know. Eat up for me bud, I know you like them better than I do.



Picture me kissing that soft little gooey germy spot right behind your left ear.

Love, Grandma Becki

What Grandma Does at the Hospital

Dear Nathan,
Every day I get blood dripped into me (see the little red tubes coming from above my head and down my arm) and then I get to carry a special backpack full of a bunch of chemo drugs. The backpack has to go EVERYWHERE with me and since it can't get wet I can't even shower. I'll bet you think that's pretty cool. Tomorrow is the last day I have to wear the backpack for a few weeks. Isn't that exciting? (The backpack is the black thing leaning between me and my nurse in the picture).

I love you all the way to the stars!!

Love, Grandma Becki

Bug cars, and firetrucks and buses, oh my!

Dear Grandma Becki,

I love you.  We saw 3 bug cars and 1 tow truck and 1 firetruck and 3 coke trucks and 13 school buses and 8 city buses and we saw 3 crane trucks.

Love from Nathan

P.S.  Nathan likes to draw very Jackson Pollock-esque pictures on Ty's new magna-doodle.  He was very proud of this one, so we took a picture for Grandma Becki.

Self-portrait

Dear Grandma Becki,

I love you!  I want to have fun with you and watch you take that yucky medicine.  I want to play with you all day forever.  I want to go to your house and poke my head in your window.  

Love, 

Nathan

P.S.  Nathan, the budding photographer, took the self-portrait at the top, and this cute picture of Ty getting into the tupperware drawer!

Pudding Painting

Nathan 2008

Brett and Emily approx. 1982

Nathan saw this picture of Brett and Emily on my computer screen saver, so we decided to do pudding painting for our Family Night activity on Monday. Nate had a blast. He asks me every day if we can do it again! Thanks for the great idea.

Here's a video of Nate "painting":

Egg Nog

Dear Grandma Becki, 

I love you.  I want to go to your house when you feel better.  Dear Grandma Becki.  I want to see you when you feel better.  I love you.  Dear Grandma Becki.  Tonight is family night and we get to drink egg nog.  I like family night.  Let's drink egg nog together all night.  I love you, bye.  Dear Grandma Becki.  I love you.

Love, Nathan

P.S.  Nathan did the whole outside edge of this puzzle by himself!

Lots of pokes

Dear Grandma Becki,

I can empathize with you a little bit today.  I had to go to the doctor and get four "pokes" in my leg!  I cried a lot at first, but I'm doing lots better now.  I weigh 19 lbs 11 oz and I am 30 inches tall!  That's about the 55th percentile for height and 1oth for weight.  Overall I am doing very well.  I hope your visit to the doctor went well for you today.  I love you!

Love, Tyler