Brinley decked out in her gifts from the nurses at the hospital.




I've been feeling like I need to gear up for something. I finally realized yesterday that Brinley would be getting her monthly chemo today. After a couple of good weeks, I feel anxious for something bad to prepare for, it's been our life for so long now. So instead of gearing up for chemo, I am gearing up for...ANOTHER CELEBRATION! Yes, another. Here's what we've been up to. For Thanksgiving Taylor had a tournament in San Diego, and so we drove to Las Vegas to have Thanksgiving dinner with David's family. When we arrived, they had thrown a surprise party for Brinley! We walked into a room full of wonderful, supportive, happy-for-all-of-us people. It caught Brinley off-guard and the first thing she did was turn around to walk out! We finally coaxed her in when she realized the party was for her. Thanks to those of you who made that happen, it was so much fun and we were touched.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day. We have so much to be thankful for this year. We are still feeling so good about where we are in life right now, enjoying the blessings we have recently been given. Thanks Chance, Sole, Alexis, Caleb, and David for sharing this wonderful holiday with us. (Not to mention the food....mmmmmmm)

Seriously Mylee? Make yourself at home!
I just couldn't resist putting this one in there, David is totally in character.
Two beautiful girls. Brinley with Aunt Sole.


That afternoon, we were off to San Diego for some beautiful weather and my absolute favorite thing in the world....to watch Taylor's team play soccer. My mom kept the kids in Vegas, so it was just David, Taylor and I. Our own little "older people" celebration. It was great to spend some alone time with Taylor, she doesn't get that too often. We left refreshed, and they played a good tournament, even though they didn't make it to the finals. They did show they can compete with the best in the nation. Go Avalanche!!

We didn't even take a picture of all three of us together! Lame!! Here's one of Taylor at the hotel.

Love this shot!



And NOW, as if we haven't already celebrated, we are getting ready for our little family celebration. My mom donated her timeshare to our family this year, and we are going to Park City for a whole week to stay in a beautiful resort and just......be. I know, Park City is very close to us, but we chose there because 1) none of us have ever skied and what better place than right here in Utah?? 2) we don't have to drive with all the kids for hours in the crammed car and 3) no gas money! I can't tell you how excited we are. I just want to scoop them all up and jump up and down shouting "We did it! We did it!!" because it was a family effort. This makes me feel like I'm doing that. We leave on Saturday. Thanks mom! Once we have our little family celebration, we'll start planning our BIG celebration in January. We want to celebrate with everyone else too!! More to come on that....

Life is just a big party for us right now, forgive us if we seem a little self-absorbed for a few weeks. We are just basking in our own little world over here. We'll be back, just need some time to take a deep breath and celebrate the beauty of normal.

On a more serious note, could I petition some prayers from you for a new friend? His name is Skyler and he has been battling the same type of cancer Brinley had, only everything that can go wrong has. Has has not left the Primary Children's Hospital since his diagnosis over 3 months ago. He started to recover from a life-threatening fungal infection, and has recently gotten worse again. He is back fighting for his life in intensive care. His mom, Crystal lost her husband two years ago, and it is just Skyler and his momma. I can't do much, but I can ask for prayers for them. Please take a few minutes to read about him, then hug your healthy kids tight and join us in the fight against this monster. We absolutely cannot allow this.