The Cutest Dragon Ever!

Well I apologize that I don't have more pictures from this past weekend. My camera was uncooperative :( I did get one picture of Bryce in his costume though and I think he looks pretty cute. Shaun and I had a great time hanging out with Jeremiah and Elaine at their family's annual bash. Costumes were mandatory so Shaun and I both dressed up. Shaun made a great looking Jesus and I was a 50s housewife. Didn't quite work out to have a family theme, maybe next year. If I get pictures from Heather or Elaine from this weekend, I'll post the scary pictures of Shaun and his Jesus wig. Shaun also got to enjoy watching the 49ers play the Colts with his dad, Jeremiah and Elaine. The Colts won, despite Shaun and Jeremiah cheering against them, but since Payton Manning didn't throw any touchdowns, they considered it a good game. Next weekend is my brother Brian's wedding. Will Bryce wear a tux? You'll have to check back next week to find out.

Happy Halloween!!

Thank you Kim and Kayci for putting together this jibjab clip. Everyone will love it. Its hilarious!!

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/ic9OheSpaxh6BGqU

My babies!

Lots of updates this week so I apologize if this entry is a little long. Shaun had his second chemo treatment this afternoon. So only 5 more months! They tweeked his dosage so hopefully his mouth won't hurt so much this time around. I also had a good day. I started doing lab work in my new lab last Friday and already have little embyoid bodies growing (see pictures above). Most of you reading this will have no idea what an embryoid body is so here is a quick description. Embyonic stem cells (from mice not humans) which can become any cell in the body were transfered into an environment that makes the stem cells differentiate (become cells such as skin, brain, heart, etc.). Today I harvested the cells that had become whats called "embryoid bodies". So embryoid bodies are just a ball of differntiated cells. They are no longer stem cells, they are just a ball of progenitors. Eventually, when they turn into heart cells, they will beat in the dish! I will show movies when I get that far. Until then, I just have cute balls of cells. (If you would like a more detailed description, please leave a comment and I can email you).

This weekend was super busy, but lots of fun with friends and family. Shaun's friend Jeremiah, aka The Rock, came up to visit from Bloomington, IN. So the boys played Madden on the wii, watched Notre Dame football and went to the Ram to watch some ultimate fighting whatnot. you'll have to ask Shaun for details on that one. All I heard was ultimate fighting and the rest went out the other ear. We went on our weekend adventure to the Shedd Aquarium. Shaun and I both love going there and it seemed like Bryce enjoyed it as well. Although most of the time Bryce was people watching instead of looking at the fish. He did take interest in the penguins. They would swim right up to the glass near him and he kept a keen eye on them.

Lastly, Bryce has been practicing his crawling by following everyone around. He's gotten pretty good at it! here is an updated video from earlier this week of his improvement.

Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm

Well, one treatment down, 11 to go. Shaun successfully handled his first chemo treatment. He did end up having most of the usual side-effects, but handled them without complaint. Now he knows he will just have to set aside a few days afterwards to sleep. The regiment he is on is called FOLFOX and is the standard of care. The drugs shouldn't affect his hair, not that he had much to fall out! So mainly he has to deal with the fatigue. His next treatment will be one week from Monday. It would be nice if Shaun could enjoy his week off in peace, but he has to go in tomorrow for a PET scan. I think the doctors just like to see his smiling face so they bring him in often.
Our weekend adventures continued with visits from Bryce's Nana and Poppa (aka Shaun's parents), Aunt Amy and WOODY! Shaun and I were very excited to get to see Woody, even if it was only for a short while. He's been staying with Shaun's parents for the last several months so we could sell the house and now so we have one less responsibility. As soon as chemo is over, or the weather gets warm again (which ever come first) Shaun will insist on Woody coming home for good.
We also visited Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm today with Nana and Poppa. Similar to the apple fest, there were A LOT of people, but thankfully the farm was adequately prepared for such crowds. They had lots of photo opts with pumpkins, gords, wood cutouts of tv characters and whatnot. When Bryce is older, we will have to go back so he can enjoy the pony rides, camel rides, petting zoo and haunted house. We still had a great time and the weather was brisk but beautiful. The leaves are starting to change so maybe next weekend we will go hiking and take pictures of the trees.

On the move

sorry the video is kinda long and probably should have been edited, but you can see Bryce on the move.