What a difference a year makes!  This time last year when we went trick-or-treating, Braden was in his stroller catching is first cold and Jackers had his bald little head and was very limited with what he could actually do.  We passed out candy last year in our driveway with all the other neighbors doing the same but we had a table set up with hand sanitizer and after Jack would hand out one candy he would sanitize his hands as would we.

Last year:

This year was so much more fun for the kids and of course that made it even more fun for us to watch!  The only thing missing this year was Zac.  If you have wondered why he hasn’t been in the last few posts, it’s because he has been out of town for work and unfortunately couldn’t be here for the football game or for Halloween.  Obviously this isn’t how we would have wanted it, but we are very lucky that Zac has a job that has allowed him so much flexibility while we were going through so much with the boys and if he has to go away now and then, we just have to deal with it.  He was very missed though this year and he would have been so proud of the boys!

This year the neighborhood did something different, our neighbor decided we should have a block party and it was such a great idea.  We all brought food and we able to gather before the trick-or-treating began to eat and for the kids to run around.  This year Jack was out there playing football in our front yard with his cousins and the neighborhood kids all day and then we were all in the driveway before the night began.  We took off to go around to the houses and I decided not to bring the stroller this year for Braden thinking we wouldn’t be out very long.  Was I wrong!  The boys walked and walked and walked to as many houses as they could.  Jack was running from house to house with all the kids and told me many times how much better this year was than last.  Braden didn’t miss a beat.  He walked almost the entire way and carried his little bucket like a big boy.  It was so cute!

There is one house in the neighborhood that does a haunted house every year and we walked down that way because we figured some of the older kids would want to go in it.  Guess who wanted to go…Jack.  I was a bit hesitant at first since he has been having nightmares but he really wanted to go so off Jack, Nikki, and I went.  How scary could it be?  It was scary!  Nikki and I were terrified and Jack was laughing.  We walked through it kindly telling the scary guys in it that we had a little boy with us and not to jump out too fast!  They didn’t really listen and when we walked out at the end, Jack was all smiles.  And no, he didn’t have nightmares last night.  Thankfully.

We all came back home and passed out candy to all the rest of the kids that were still hitting the houses.  Jack was so outgoing with everyone and just had a great night.  Nikki stayed over and brought her puppy with her too and Jack got a kick out of that.  We all stayed up late which equaled to sleeping in a little later.  The boys had so much fun and it was pretty much a wonderful night.

We are now in Novemeber and once again have a busy month with the PCH benefit this weekend, CA trip, scans, Thanksgiving, endocrinologist appointment, Jack starting school again (tomorrow!), and so much more.  Scans are in 14 days.  Oh boy.  They will be clear.  They just simply have to be.

Captian America and Bubble Bee the Transformer

Well we have 5 more days of radiation and we are at day +60 after transplant…time is just flying!!  We can’t wait for next week to be done and then Jack will have tackled one more difficult task on his list for beating Neuroblastoma. 

We have had a busy week as usual!  This weekend was so great and Halloween was one of the best nights we have had in a long time.  Jack was so excited to get dressed up as Luigi (even though he already wore it to radiation 3 times) and to get out of the house and go trick-or-treating.  In the morning I noticed that Braden’s bottom tooth was finally starting to come in (woo hoo!) and then a couple of hours later Braden started to realize it was coming in and he has been pretty miserable ever since.  He had some Tylenol and he felt much better so we got the kids all dressed up and off we went.  Zac, Nikki, the boys, and I walked around to about 10 houses or so for Jack to trick-0r-treat.  It amazing because only a few months ago he wouldn’t talk to anyone.  He was happy and full of energy once he got to know a person, but if he didn’t know you, he didn’t want anything to do with you.  He was walking up to these houses with such confidence and would laugh and yell trick-or-treat to everyone.  He even carried around a bucket for his brother so he could get candy too.  He was just so happy to be out.  We really do have a great neighborhood and wonderful neighbors so that made it even better.  After we were done, we set up chairs out front and passed out candy to all the kids.  Jack actually gave out all the candy and would say, “Ok…here come some more customers!” every time a new child came up the drive.  As they left he would wave and yell, “Happy Halloween!  Thank you!”  Then we would apply the sanitizer to his hands and this went on for a couple of hours.  It was wonderful and we were so proud of what a little man Jack has become.

Braden has been a bit cranky and has a runny nose so I have been trying to keep the boys apart as much as possible just in case he has a cold and we don’t want Jack to get it.  Hopefully little Brady starts feeling better tomorrow and is back to his old self again!

We went to the clinic yesterday after radiation and met with Dr Eshun.  Jack did great and his levels are wonderful so no need to stick around.  We did discuss the start date of immunotherapy and it will be on Dec 3rd.  We will start shots at home for 3 days and then we check in on December 6th for 4 or 5 days.  It is great knowing that this will be Jack’s last part of treatment, but scary since it is supposed to be pretty painful on the little guys.  I am sure we will have more info as the date gets closer and after Jack’s scans on the 16th and 17th.

McKenna got her scans back and she is cleared to start her immunotherapy at the end of this month. She had some active Neuroblastoma in her abdoman  before radiation but it is significantly less so they are moving forward.  Please pray for her as she starts this treatment.

One more thing…don’t forget about the 1st Annual Jack Morton Golf Classic on December 5th!!  Please go to http://www.idolgolf.com/Events.htm and click on Jack’s truck to download the application!  If you are wanting to golf, sign up soon!  We are so excited and hope to make this a big event every year.  We hope to see many of you there!!  Thank you so much for your support.

I have added some new pics and will be adding more once I figure out how to make them smaller.  My wonderful friend, Kacey, took some pictures on Jack’s last day of transplant and I want to post them but they are a bit big so I will have to figure that out so you can see how great they are!

Day +39

Well we haven’t written in 5 days and we have just been so busy and sometimes just busy doing nothing. Does that even make sense???

Nikki and Shawn had a safe drive from Idaho and arrived late Saturday night. Zac was at a golf tournament for work so he wasn’t here when they arrived. Jack was so very excited for them to get here. We went out to see them as they pulled up and our new neighbors across the street were outside decorating for Halloween so we were able to meet them. They are so very sweet and have two young boys. They ended up putting up lights on our house for Halloween and we thought that was so sweet. Jack loves having the lights.

Sunday we all got up nice and early and Jack, Zac, and Shawn took a ride in the neighbors golf cart to Starbucks to get us all coffee (it’s right across the street and yes they went through the drive thru) and Jack thought that was so much fun. After unloading Nikki and Shawny, Shawn had to hurry off to the airport so he could get back to work.

Zac had to go back to back to Tucson for work Monday and we tried to get things accomplished around the house. We were able to get out and Jack got to go to the park for the first time in so long. He was so happy being outside. I was also able to connect with a family that I used to nanny for years ago. They were such a huge part of my life and I just have always loved all of them. I didn’t have their number and I was honestly scared to tell them about Jack because it has been a few years since I have seen them and they are like family to me. It is hard to talk about Jack with people that you are close to because it always makes it even more real. I was able to tell them everything and they automatically said that they were stopping over today even if they had to stand outside just to see me. I thought that was so sweet of them. You really realize when you go through something like this who you can count on and Melanie and Barry are 2 of those people. They stopped over tonight and were able to meet the boys and they loved them. For those of you who know Jack, he doesn’t warm up to everyone and he totally did with them. He tried to make Melanie play the Wii and Braden was all smiles and flirty with her as well. I just can’t tell you how happy I was to see them tonight….thank you so much for stopping over to see us!!

Zac was able to come home tonight and he will be taking tomorrow off to go to Jacks’s first radiation session tomorrow morning. We have to leave around 5:30 am so that should be interesting. Please pray for Jack that he get through this with as little side effects as possible. He is our fighter and he will do this with such courage as he has with everything else.

I heard this the other day and I think this is how we have been able to get though this journey….”we all have problems but we also all have triumphs. If we focus on on the triumphs and the positive, we can get through our lows that much better.”. So true.