I love summertime

Summer is my favorite time of year! It's so beautiful here in Washington, blue skies, sunshine, warmth, and so pretty green :)

Update on Megan....Keep Praying, the prayers are working!

Information from her husband Ryan:

"Today I went to the hospital and was able to be with megan. Her medicine was much lighter than expected and she is still kind of there. I was able to hold her hand and she could use her hands to speak by sign language. She was able to sign that she loved us and that she is doing okay. The doctors say that her lungs are responding really well to the Leukemia and such dramatic progress that they are going to try and wean her off of the ventilator tomorrow. If all goes well she will be able to be woken up in a couple days and I can speak with her. They are now thinking that she did not have pneumonia but the leukemia cells were infiltrating her lungs and rapidly filling them with fluid.

I am so glad to finally have some good news. After a week of emergency, middle of the night hospital trips full of bad news it feels so good to hear something positive. I told Megan that once she get the tubes out and is breathing better, she will have a large cake batter cold stone ice cream waiting for her!"

He created a website http://www.prayersformegan.com/ with information, songs, videos, pictures, which is incredible.

Prayers Please

I just wanted to ask for prayers. Please pray for my friend Megan Smith. She is a friend from BYU Hawaii and was in our married student ward. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia on July 12th, right after giving birth to her first baby (a girl!). Then they found out she also had pneumonia. She took a turn for the worse with her Pneumonia and had to be transfered to the ICU. She was not able to get enough oxygen so they had to put her on a breathing machine and then in a Drug Induced Acoma. Unfortunately they say she will be in that coma for another month. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.





Here is a little background info on what has been going on...... (WRITTEN BY HER HUSBAND RYAN SMITH)

Sunday night Megan woke me up at 2 am saying that she thought her water had broken. So we checked and sure enough, time for delivery was near. We went to the hospital and got settled in for a big day. When it was about time for the epidural the doctors did a CBC (complete blood count) and found some abnormalities in the white blood count. Instead of a normal 5 - 10k it was around 40k. We found this odd because she just 2 weeks ago she had a full workup of blood and everything was perfectly normal, she was perfectly healthy as she always has been.

After the test was performed in triplicate and sent all around NY to be verified by pathologists, hematologists and a ton of other specialties I have never heard of I started to quickly catch on the apparent seriousness of the issue. The doctors were not positive but had serious suspicions about what was happening. During this Megan was fighting through a good long labor with her epidural not working (poor girl). They were able to get it working before she started the pushing and it is a good thing because she pushed for over 3 hours. After all of that at around 10 pm a perfect little girl was born and to my amazement she came out with no distortions, blotches or imperfection of any kind.... amazing.... She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. We gave her the name Rylee Hannah Smith : )

Due to the seriousness of the situation the doctors would not let megan rest, even after my appeals to let just sleep through one night, after only being able to hold the baby Megan was rushed off to the Roswell Cancer Institute in an ambulance. That night they performed countless tests including things like bone marrow biopsies...

After all of this they found that Megan has AML which is Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Even after probably the most difficult 2 days i could ever imagine anyone going through, Megan has the best attitude ever and i think i am safe to say she is already the most popular person in the entire Leukemia wing of the hospital.

She is cute to begin with but the more drugs they give her she cuter she gets!

Megan is awesome and she has a long road ahead and that is why I made this page so that she can see the tremendous support out there for her. I will do my best to do as many updates about her as I can but she will be i treatment for the next year and this first stretch of chemotherapy and treatment will leave her in the hospital for the next month and half.

I really appreciate everyones support and I am sorry if i have not kept everyone as informed as i should

Train Ride

Breanna LOVES trains. This June when we went to Colorado she was lucky enough to have her Grampy take her on a real train ride. She has not stopped talking about it yet. Every couple of days she says we need to go on a train ride again....2 trains to be specific (b/c they took the light rail first).

We also need to get BIG, CHOCOLATE donuts before the train ride, one for each of us (that's what her grammy got her and Grampy before the ride).

We need to go through lots of tunnels.

We need to go up, up, up the mountain.

We need to go on trains, because that's what people do.

This is what I am told and reminded of almost daily. We also shouldn't fly to Colorado anymore, we need to take 2 trains there.

Thanks Grampy!

4th of July

We had a great day at church....went for a bike ride/walk and then put the kids to bed after dinner. (7pm)

Then I woke them up at 9:30PM and we drove to see fireworks (which didn't start til 10:15PM).

The kids loved it. Ethan would say aaahhh, or scream and then clap his hands after each firework. He would get frustrated if there was a break in the action.

Breanna did great, her eyes were SO excited when we got in the car and saw fireworks as we drove to see fireworks. I thought she might freak out b/c she does NOT like loud noises, but she really enjoyed the whole event. I'm really glad I brought blankets b/c it was pretty chilly, but so fun.

We decided to go somewhere we could see the fireworks and not get stuck in the huge crowds and traffic on the way out. So....we drove along looking for where to go....and then we decided to sit with the thousands of others that had gathered at the Tumwater Cemetery (Yikes:) for the fireworks. We were on the edge of the cemetery, not in the graveyard, out in the open grass, so it was great for viewing and kind of cool actually. But, it was eerie walking to and from our car on the sidewalk through the cemetery. It's something I'll definitely remember though!

They went right to sleep when we got home, yeah!

Light the Night

My dad has fought lymphoma for 3 years. A year ago he completed a bone marrow transplant and is now cancer free. In honor and in celebration of my Dad surviving and getting through the cancer battle and the 1 year mark of surviving the transplant we are participating in the "Light the Night Walk" in Denver. Our team name is "Snoy Survivors" (My maiden name is Snoy). We will be walking on Sept. 30th.

I'm raising money for a very important cause, through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light The Night Walk: finding better treatments and cures for blood cancers so patients can live better, longer lives. I'm asking you to help by making a tax-deductible contribution! Please use the link in this email to donate online quickly & securely. You will receive an email confirmation of your donation as soon as it is made. I thank you in advance for your support which will make a difference in the lives of thousands of patients battling blood cancers.

I realize that it is difficult to donate with the tough economic times. If you are able to contribute you will be helping a very important cause! Any donation would be VERY appreciated, $1, $5, $10, anything counts!

I really appreciate your generosity!!

http://pages.lightthenight.org/rm/DenverL10/BDouglas


Thank you,

Brooke Douglas

Mount Rainier

We went yesterday and it was lots of fun :)

Long drive, but gorgeous. It got to 94 degrees here which is VERY hot for Washington, so we decided to head for the mountain.

There was tons of snow at the top the kids got to throw snow and go through tons of streams (from all the snow melting).

It was crazy to be in tank tops and shorts and be playing with snow too!!

Here's a shout out to Matti Parker for the super cute dress Breanna was wearing! (She made it for her when my hubby went out to Hawaii a few months ago). Very talented and awesome friend!

Rob and I went 4 years ago when I was pregnant with Breanna, so this was very fun to go do again, but it is quite different when you're going with 2 adults versus with 2 adults and 2 kiddos! Lots more involved. Snacks, bottles, pacifiers, sunscreen, toys, blankie, changes of clothes, diapers, wipes, water, more snacks, more treats for bribery, etc....

Over 4 hours of driving in one day is not the norm for our family, so THANKS kids for doing a pretty darn good job. (Thanks Ethan for sleeping for 2 out of the 4 hours b/c you were not happy with us when you would wake up and find out that we were still driving :)

We got to see beautiful waterfalls, tons of trees, flowers, a deer, beautiful country. Fun times. I love when we go on adventures!

Check up

Height: 29 inches - 25th percentile
Weight: 21.5 lbs - 25th percentile

OK....here's my question for the day....

Ethan breastfed until 9 months old when he weaned HIMSELF. Since then I've been bottle feeding him.

Why do I have to take him off the bottle at 12 months? If I were nursing him, no one would have told me that I had to stop nursing him....so what is the difference?

Why is it okay for a mom to nurse her child til they are 2 or whenever but I have to automatically stop giving him milk in the bottle?

My doctor also said I should put the milk in a sippy cup cold.....
-No bottle
-Cold

Why don't I just tazor him while I'm at it...the poor child will NOT drink cold formula or milk so this would be pure torture to him.

-Seriously though, I do NOT put him in bed with his bottle.
-He only drinks his bottle at routine times in the day.
-He does not casually sip the bottle or have one near him unless it's his bottle feeding time.
-I hold him while he drinks his bottle, it's our special time together with NO ONE else interrupting, so as much as he would not like it, I would not like it, b/c it's my only one on one time with him and just him.

So, what's your opinion? Seriously, I'm interested. I know I eventually need to get rid of the bottle, but why is it so important to do it at 12 months, when I could have nursed him for longer without a Dr. telling me to stop.

It's been a WHOLE year!

Happy Birthday Ethan. I'm so grateful that you're in our family. You are the easy going, happy, wonderful addition that I am so amazed that we were blessed with. I can't believe how fast a year has gone by with you.

Right now you can:
-Clap
-Wave hello and goodbye
-Trying to sign more
-Say mama, dada, uh-oh
-Crawling super fast
-Get into everything! Toilets, toilet paper and anything messy is your favorite
-Have 9 teeth
-Eat EVERYTHING! Yell until you are able to taste whatever we are eating even if you have just been fed your meal.
-Cruise along furniture
-Have started standing when you don't realize it for over 30 seconds without falling
-Have started to climb (AAAHHH)....the other day out of your high chair
-Can go backwards down slides, stairs, curbs, bed, etc...
-Have decided screaming really loud is a great way to get what you need
-Love "walking" by pushing the stroller, walker, bike, etc.