The Merrell Family Blog

Christmas Day

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 21:11:00 +0000

Christmas was definitely a little bit different this year. Justin was working out of town and the kids and I were just here at the house by ourselves. I tried to not let myself get down about the situation and just did the best I could to make sure that the kids had a good Christmas. Christmas eve as I was prepping food for Christmas dinner I realized that Silas had thrown out several ingredients from the car as we had been grocery shopping. I couldn't just substitute anything for these items so I decided to just load the kids up and go grab them. Well I go out to my car have the kids all loaded up and the car won't start. I pop the hood and the battery is totally fried. The acid had spilled out everywhere. We knew I needed a new battery but just hadn't gotten around to replacing it. Luckily I wasn't stranded since Justin's truck is here but it still just put a big kink into Christmas eve. I tried to get the battery out of the car and the bolts were corroded and I couldn't get them to budge. Luckily my neighbors the Goodrich's were home and Spencer and his Dad came over and helped me get the battery out. I took the battery to try and get a replacement and new cables (those also needed replaced) and had to go to several different auto stores to find the right one. Apparently my battery is not a common one. I brought the battery and new cables back and who do I find in my garage? Spencer and his Dad cleaning off the cables and my whole engine and getting it ready to all go back together. What an amazing act of service for these two men to provide to me when they could be celebrating Christmas eve with their family. I felt so guilty for stealing away their time like this but so grateful that they were here to help me. They helped me get my car back together but one of the pieces of the cables didn't fit the terminal (odd size battery problem) So I had to rush back to the auto store to get a different part before they closed. The Goodriches were so sweet to me and even invited us over to have dinner with them and the missionaries. I apologized profusely for having to have them help me and Spencer's Dad said "Isn't this how Christ would have wanted to have us spend this day anyways?" What a huge testimony builder of how much good service for others can do.

So Christmas morning came bright and early around 7am which doesn't sound too bad except when you are the only parent ah hem helping Santa out and a specific blue and yellow item won't go together and you stay up until around 4 am... 7am is way too early! lol

Silas's Santa presents

Brylee's Santa presents

And Zaralyn's Santa presents

Super excited kids!

The girl's gifts were American Girl dolls and some accessories and Silas got the Little Tikes Truck. All of the gifts were a huge hit and (since I am now finally blogging this in June) they all still get used daily!

We still had Christmas Breakfast Casserole like we would have had we been at my parents house. Yummy!

But for dinner I ended up not feeling like cooking a whole turkey. It just seemed wasteful since it was just me and the kids so we made make your own pizza's instead. And you know what they were just as happy!
(We did have some yummy sides that I made the day before) We had a really low key day skyping with family and the kids played and played to their heart's content. I spent the day getting addicted to Downton Abby as Season 1 was my Christmas gift to myself. It turned out to be a really nice Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone! (In June-haha!)

Squiggles the Elf

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 20:46:00 +0000

This year our scout elf Squiggles was up to a whole bunch of fun! He was always finding new ways to make us smile and remember to be good because Squiggles reports to Santa. Here are just a few of the places that Squiggles hung out all December.

He drew on our pictures.

And helped himself to a snack of Elf milk and cookies with Candy corn or course.

He even zip-lined into the Christmas tree one day!

He also held a day of Elf School to teach some friends about being the best elf.

He even wanted a few smooches with his home made kissing booth.

We all loved searching for Squiggles each day and the kids were sad to see him go after Christmas. Good thing he will be back next year up to even more shenanigans I am sure.

Gingerbread Houses

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 20:39:00 +0000

This year I decided that I wanted to try and make real gingerbread houses. Like the dough and everything from scratch. Well not the candy obviously, but the house and icing and everything was from scratch. The girls thought it was so much fun to help me make everything and they had a great time decorating their own houses. Silas helped to destroy them and eat the candy. It made for a fun Christmas activity.

Christmas Dance Recital 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 20:36:00 +0000

Just a few pics from the girls Christmas Dance Recital

These girls are crazy. I love that they like to be goofy!

Brylee's class danced to "Teddy Bear Picnic"

Zaralyn's song was "What Christmas Means to Me"

Winter Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 20:15:00 +0000

This winter we got lots of snow and the kids loved it. They were out playing in the snow on a nearly daily basis. We went through lots of Hot Chocolate! :)

Poor Silas had to wear his sister's hand me down pants and boots for the first real big snow. I did eventually get him a different pair. Not until after I took most of these pictures though. Oops. Mom fail lol

The girls talked their daddy into building up the big hill on the side of the house to make a sledding hill. They had so much fun sledding this little hill all winter.

Brylee's Preschool Christmas program

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 20:08:00 +0000

Bright Beginnings Preschool always puts on an awesome show for every holiday and their Christmas Program did not disappoint. The kids sang Christmas songs and there were props and cute little actions for each song. Brylee just loves preschool!

Bry and Mrs. Condefer

Brylee and her assistant teacher Mrs. Leumbruni

Fall Family Pictures 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 20:04:00 +0000

I want to post a few of our family pictures that we had taken last fall. I really wanted pictures done earlier (like August) because I wanted all the pretty greenery to be out. Pennsylvania is so beautiful in the summer, but the whole thyroid cancer thing kinda sucked the life out of that idea so by the time we were finally able to meet up with our amazing photographer, Crystal Satriano of Crystal Satriano Photography it was already very fallish and nearly winter. We had planned to go to a spot she had shot before, but the day before the shoot I was running my favorite trail and realized it was so pretty we should just do our pictures here on this trail. Running has become such an important part of my life over the last year so I sorta love the symbolism of it as well. Crystal was a great sport and just went with it. I am so glad that it worked out and we were able to finally get things together. Thank you for the amazing pictures Crystal! We love them!

Halloween Monsters

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:43:00 +0000

This year for Halloween we decided to go as a family of monsters. We got rave reviews everywhere we went. It was really fun to dress up. Silas' costume was the jumping off point for the whole group. He was such a cute little monster!

The girls loved their costumes and got really into it. We went to a gymnastics Halloween party and Zaralyn won the best costume in her age group.

Zaralyn had a costume parade at Kindergarten so we went and watched her parade around the school.

This is Mrs. Sharples, Zaralyn's teacher and Zaralyn's class.

What a cute little monster!

Brylee also had a costume parade at preschool.

Cute little monster!

Her preschool class all costumed up.

Happy Halloween!

Our little Monster turned 1!

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:29:00 +0000

Silas turned 1 and so of course I had to do his very first birthday party up big! (Like there is any other option for me, lol) I chose a monster theme and we had so much fun celebrating our little guy!

For decor I tried to keep it somewhat simple. I decorated the food table and our fireplace mantle.

I wanted pictures of Silas throughout his first year. I just added the little monsters I cut out from the party pack that I purchased through Amanda's Parties to Go! on Etsy I also cut out more of these monsters and had them on the front door and around on the walls as decor. They were so cute!

I made this little googly eye frame and it turned out pretty cute I thought :)

I made this pendant banner from some monster fabric and finished it off with the googly eye and black pom pom streamers.

I thought the overall look turned out great!

The food table:

For food, I stuck with all of Silas' favorites. We had White Cheddar mac n cheese, Grilled Hot Dogs, string cheese, gogurt, apples, jello jigglers, and carrots and celery. The food was a hit with everyone!

Allison loved helping feed Silas.

The cake was a 3 tiered monster cake made by Sarah's Specialty Sweets. It turned out soooo amazing! Sarah and Luis make the most amazing cakes! They nailed this cake! It was exactly what I had envisioned. Thank you guys so much!

His Green eyed monster smash cake.

After everyone ate some yummy lunch, we had all the kids go to the monster factory to make their monster bags. They needed bags for the games and pinata later.

Daddy making Silas a monster bag.

For the games, I wanted to do carnival type games so we did a bean bag toss...

I painted the monster and made the bean bags out of the same material that I used for the pendant banner.

Silas couldn't do too many of the games, but he didn't mind. He loved pointing to and watching the fan and hanging out with dad.

He is so dang cute!

The next game was pin the eyes on the monster. I made this game out of a poster board and crate paper. I sewed the two pieces of crate paper down the center and then ruffled them to make the monster furry.

Silas is such a rock star! I love this picture :)

The other game that we played was a balloon pop. You can see it in this picture below, but it happened so fast that I didn't get a single picture of it.

After we finished games we did the pull string pinata. The kids used the monster bags that they had made to collect the candy.

Next was singing Silas Happy Birthday and him blowing out his candles.

He almost grabbed the burning candle with his hand. It was a sink your heart into your stomach moment for me...

So we helped him blow it out.

He grabbed the little monster horns right off and started chowing down.

Then he opened his presents from all of his guests.

He was more interested in the pinata suckers than his smash cake. He ate a little bit, but didn't want to dig in and get messy.

Happy 1st birthday little man! It was a great party and I hope that everyone had fun! Love you Silas!

National Aquarium Baltimore

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 06:03:00 +0000

Before we left Baltimore, we wanted to take the kids to the National Aquarium. We had heard great things about it and we weren't disappointed.

Brylee wanted her picture taken by the teeth

I thought I would include this picture as a sign of the times. Silas always points with his middle finger on his left hand, but he points with his pointer finger on his right. Go figure, lol

Don't these two look identical in this picture? I think the flash was killing their eyes or something, but its too funny not to post.

We had no idea that they had a dolphin exhibit. I felt like we were at Sea World. It was so fun to watch the show!

I love these pictures of Silas. He was just watching the show so intently.

His little eyes just followed the dolphins back and forth across the tank.

Then we went to the jelly fish exhibit which was really cool.

One thing that was impossible to get any pictures of was the shark tanks. They had a several story display, but it was so dark and pictures just weren't happening. The kids loved seeing all the sharks though. And then there are just more pictures of my adorable little guy playing peek a boo!

After the Aquarium, we ate lunch at The Hard Rock Cafe Baltimore (which is also right on the harbor-we didn't drive anywhere) before heading back home. It was a really short trip, but one that we will always remember. And who knows, maybe we'll get to go back one day.We loved Baltimore!

Baltimore Harbor

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:43:00 +0000

So after we went to Ripley's (Which you can sorta see in the top right of this first pic) We walked along the harbor and stopped at a few shops. The kids begged to stop at this huge candy store, so we did and they all picked some treats to eat. As we walked back outside a crowd was gathering because a street performer was starting. This lady was really good and super funny. She rode a unicycle, told jokes and had lots of audience participation.

The kids had their treats and watched the show. It was pretty perfect timing! Plus I was pretty sore from running that morning, so it was just nice to sit for a bit.

Zaralyn was eating a chocolate rock and enjoying it obviously.

Even Silas liked watching the show.

The sun was starting to set, but Justin wanted to walk to the other side of the harbor to find a geo cache. I am glad that we did because it was so beautiful! The harbor was amazing!

In this picture the triangle topped building is the Aquarium that we went to the next day.

Baltimore is stunning, and we had so much fun!

We got cheesecake to-go from The Cheesecake Factory and went back to the hotel room, we were all pretty beat and we still had the whole Brylee ER incident ahead of us. Overall though, a great day!

Ripley's Believe it or NOT!

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:26:00 +0000

After the half marathon, we went back to the hotel so that I could shower and relax for a minute, but that didn't last long as the kids were so excited to go do some things on the town. We had walked past a museum called Ripley's Believe it or NOT! (Remember that tv show?). The kids really wanted to go there (I should have gotten a pic of the outside of the building and you would have understood why). We got some lunch at a seafood place right on the harbor, and then walked next door to Ripley's. (All of this was like 2 blocks from our hotel room)

There were so many cool and crazy and bazaar things to look at.

We saw this car that is covered with crystals, and a replica of the world's tallest man. Poor guy!

There were lots of odd things to look at...

Including a sculpture of Hogwarts

Brylee loved this box.

You pushed the button and it opened up and blew air right at her face.

She would wait for it...

And do it again and again. It was funny.

A silver covered T-Rex

Silas was content in the stroller. (Nap time!)

Brylee wanted her picture taken with just about everything.

This picture makes me laugh. This is a wax model of the world's fattest man. I told Justin I had better take a picture by it so that since I have lost all this weight I could feel super skinny. Mission shamefully accomplished, lol

After we had gone through the entire museum, our tickets got us into a mirror maze. I liked this mirror because it made us super skinny. (again, so vane! lol)

What tough little chickies!

We walked through some sliding doors into the pitch black mirror maze. The only lights were small little floor lights lining the edges of the paths. It was really hard to navigate because you had to basically walk super slow with your hands out in front of you so that you wouldn't smack into the mirror as the mirrors played tricks on your eyes. The girls were scared at first but then they started to get used to it. Zaralyn started walking faster and got a little ahead of us (like 5 feet) Brylee suddenly took off on a dead run as it looked like Zaralyn had gone down a long hallway and Brylee wanted to catch up to her. Bry was seriously right next to me as she bolted into a dead sprint and SMACK! body slammed a mirror. Zaralyn had actually turned and was just to the right and behind us down a different hallway. Brylee really hit the mirror very hard and instantly grabbed her knee and was screaming in pain. Of course we are in the pitch black mirror maze and have no clue where we are supposed to go. Let's just say that ended all the fun right there. We couldn't get out quick enough! Brylee did settle down but insisted on riding in the stroller the rest of the time.

We went back and forth on how bad we thought she was hurt, but by the end of the night back at the hotel room she wouldn't even put any weight on her right leg, it was really swollen and I started to freak out. I didn't want something to be messed up with her knee and us not do anything about it, so Justin took her to the ER. After some x-rays and seeing a specialist later, they said that she hadn't done any permanent damage, she just had a hematoma. They just wrapped it to help reduce the swelling and told her to take it really easy. I am so glad that she wasn't hurt worse, but yay for more doctor bills! lol (Like we don't have enough of those already)

Baltimore Half Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 05:19:00 +0000

On October 13, 2012 I ran my very first half marathon. I signed up for the Baltimore Half Marathon a few months prior and picked it based on the fact that it was on a Saturday. Almost every race around here are on Sundays. I have some running friends that have run this race before and they told me what a great race it was. I trained hard for this race. I run 5-6 days a week, but even with all of that, I was nervous!! The few weeks leading up to the race were crazy and I didn't get in my long runs as much as I would have like to. I crammed the last week before the race and decided that I would run my hardest and that was going to be good enough. My target finish time was anything under 2 hours 30 minutes

Justin, the kids and I drove (about 3 1/2 hours) down to Baltimore the night before. I had to pick up my race packet at the expo Friday night. The expo was fun (lots of free stuff!) and I just remember people watching and thinking "look at all these people who want to run this thing, just like me" It was a really cool feeling. I wanted to find the start/finish lines so that I would know where I was going in the morning and so that Justin and I could find where to meet back up the next morning. This pic above is of the 13 mile mark and I was just praying I would make it past this sign the next day.

I didn't get great sleep because I was so nervous about the race, but the next morning I couldn't wait to get started. It was so cold outside, but the sun was shining and it was beautiful! The half marathon start line was right on the harbor. It was beautiful!!

A few pre-race pictures.

Here at the start line...

The sun was so bright! Which was good because the air was cold! I couldn't believe some people were running in almost nothing. I was freezing!

There were so many people!! There were 10,247 people in just the half marathon alone. I believe there were around 30,000 people running in the various races that day. Ya, lots of people runnin those streets!

Attempted a pic with the kids. And this is the best one we got, "The sun is in my eyes!" ...Kids, lol

Just me. Excited. Nervous. Ready.

When it was getting closer to my start time I had to cross the street into the corrals for racers. My cheer section waited for me to start. I was so happy for their support! Especially Justin. Love that man!

We started in waves, and I was about 1/2 way back. It was hard to just sit there waiting. All I wanted to do was run. Finally it was my waves turn to go. We started running and I knew I wanted to pace myself. I had so much energy though. It was hard to not bolt! I started picking people out of the crowd and decide if I needed to go faster or slower than them. This helped me keep my pace. Right off the bat though there were some decent hills and I couldn't believe it when my ipod hadn't even said one mile yet and people were starting to walk. I mean I know one mile can be a lot for some people, but these people just signed up for 13.1. It blew my mind because my #1 goal was not to walk. At all. I had so much energy and before I knew it I had already run a mile. And I was running fast. I tried to slow down a little bit, but it was no use. If someone passed me I couldn't help but at the very least try and keep up with them or pass them back. It made the long race fun. Somewhere around 3 or 4 miles I started to get a side ache and I was going, "oh crap! I still have way too far to go", but I pressed on and eventually it went away.

Around mile 7 we were running by a park and I felt something brush my hand. I looked down to see my cell phone falling to the ground. I swooped down real quick and grabbed it just before it landed on the ground. I was so glad that I had felt it falling out of my pocket because if I hadn't it would have fallen and been trampled for sure. I still think about how lucky that was!

The rest of the miles were filled with lots and lots of hills, gorgeous skylines, parks, and some pretty questionable slummy areas. Along the way there were awesome people singing, cheering and holding signs and I read so many of them. Lots of them made me laugh and I wish I would have written them down because now I have forgotten what they said. Those people standing out cheering were so amazing and made me feel so good! I hope I can return the favor one day. One of my favorite parts of this race was when we ran this big loop around a lake. It was probably at least a mile or more around it, and as I ran in, I could see the masses of people running in front of me. I felt like I was one of the last people in the race, but as I rounded the other side of the lake, I could see thousands of people running behind me. It was an amazing sight!

As I approached the last few miles I was tired, and I could feel my muscles already aching. Part of me felt like walking. Lots of people did. It was so frustrating to watch a girl just in front of me running. Then she would stop and walk. I would get just caught up to her and she would start running again and take off. She did this several times. It was frustrating because I wasn't walking at all and she was still going faster than me, but dang it, I was running! The whole thing, and I knew I could be proud of that!

I hit that 10 mile mark and a fire was lit inside of me. I was so excited to be in the double digit miles and more motivated than ever to finish. I was almost giddy. People were still passing me and I tried several times to push my body faster, but I just couldn't. I wanted to push harder, but I was already pushing my body as far as I could. I just knew it was important to cross that finish line.

As I started to round out the last mile, people were cheering and yelling, "your almost there, run, run!" As I ran into the last .1 mile of the race, my eyes were scanning the crowds hoping to catch a glimpse of Justin and the kids. I was so focused on seeing them, that I was totally caught off guard by what happened next. I crossed the finish line. I had done it! And instantly tears welled up in my eyes. I had really just run 13 point 1 freaking miles! I didn't know what my time was, all I knew was that I had done it. I choked down the tears and tried to act normal as I was standing in a huge crowd. I looked around to see if anyone else was a crazy cry baby like me, and I didn't see any one else, but I didn't care. I was so filled with emotion and so proud! Best moment ever and the reason I will run another half and hopefully a full marathon one day. That moment was awesome!!

I got my medal and my official time was 2:14:14

I finished in 5447th place. Not too shabby for my first half and out of 10,247 people.

Although I have tried convincing them otherwise, the girls still think I came in 1st :)

This day was such a life changer for me and a moment that I will never forget. I have come so far in the last year. I have lost over 100 pounds, beat thyroid cancer and run a half marathon. I love running and how good it is for me. It just fits me and makes me happy.

I am a runner because I lace up and run.

It is simple. I love it!

A Mermaid Party

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 01:17:00 +0000

For Zaralyn's 6th birthday part she wanted a Mermaid theme. It turned out so cute! It was thrown together very last minute, but I think it still turned out great. This was the food table with a baloon backdrop. We had sandwhiches, blue jello with Swedish fish in them, Mermaid cookies, chips, grapes, goldfish fish shaped chocolate pops, and kool aide drinks and waters. It was all delicious!

The cake was make by Sarah of Sarah's Specialty Sweets. She did an amazing job like always! Thank you Sarah!!

I made these chocolate pops and they were really fun. The kids loved them!

The happy birthday girl having some lunch!

Allison

I also made these Mermaid cookies with the help of a good friend Mrs. Condifer. They turned out adorable!

We played some under the sea games. We had Little Mermaid music playing and the kids had to keep their balloons up in the air then we would pause it. They all had a good time with this!

When we paused the music we would have one girl pull a funny thing to do out of a jar and they would all have to do it (crab walk, dance like a jellyfish, etc)

Ava

Sadie

Then we pinned different Little Mermaid characters to the kids backs with clothes pins and they had to ask each other questions to guess who they each had.

Brylee and Lila

Silas

Gracie

Next we painted Mermaid dolls out of old style clothes pins. They turned out super fun and the kids loved them!

Make a wish baby girl

Present time!

We all had a great time celebrating Zaralyn's birthday Mermaid style! Thank you to everyone who came to help us celebrate. Also Mike Carone took most of these party pictures for me. Thank you so much Mike!! Happy Birthday Zaralyn!

Zaralyn's 6th birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:57:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Zaralyn!! We had a good time hanging out together on her birthday. Her birthday was on a Saturday and she didn't really have any specific plans in mind. She wanted to play with her neighborhood friends outside. They kids were all so content. It was nice. Then we went to dinner at Friendly's which is Zaralyn's favorite restaurant. When we got back home we Skyped with Dad so that he could watch her open her presents. She loved her gift from Grandma and Grandpa Millett. It was the gift that just kept on giving, lol There were a lot of small things wrapped in the package and she loved it! Thank you!

Brylee was being funny with the box.

Dad and Mom gave her a fijit friend among other things.

The inside of her cake was multi-colored. I was excited for her to see it. She blew out her candles and the said. "I don't even like cake Mom, can I go play with my toys now?" So maybe next year we won't do a cake for her, lol

Skyping with Dad

Zaralyn's favorite candy is a Hershey's bar and that is what she wanted to take in for her treat for her class. So we made them match her birthday party that we were having. They turned out cute.

Happy 6th Birthday Zaralyn! We love you!

Zaralyn's first day of Kindergarten

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:47:00 +0000

I still can't believe how grown up my fist baby is! On September 17, 2012 (They started late because they added an addition onto the elementary and they were waiting for construction to finish.) Zaralyn started kindergarten at Mid Valley Elementary. Her teacher is Mrs. Sharples and she goes to school all day! 9am to 3:20pm She had to start school with a splinted soft cast because of her broken elbow, but she didn't let it bother her.

I wanted to cry as I dropped her off at school and snapped this picture. I couldn't believe that she was walking into this big building all by herself. She couldn't wait to get in there! She is excellent at school although the first few weeks of all day school were an adjustment for both of us, she is now used to the routine and doing great!

brush brush brush

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:38:00 +0000

Silas has decided that he can brush his own teeth now. (At 11 months old). He loves to climb up on the stool and get the water on his brush.

Him on his little tip toes just kills me. He is so cute!

September 2012

Brylee's first day of preschool

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:25:00 +0000

On September 10, 2012 Brylee started preschool at Bright Beginnings Preschool. She goes in the afternoon from 12-3pm. Her teachers are Mrs. Condifer and Mrs. Leombruni. She was SO excited to start school! This morning Zaralyn had a doctors appointment for her broken elbow, so I had to take her to Philadelphia. I got Brylee all ready for school and snapped her picture before we left, but Daddy actually took Brylee to her first day. (What a treat! She loves her daddy!) She loves school so much and is doing great in it!

Ocean City, NJ

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 05:01:00 +0000

I seriously can not say enough good things about Ocean City, New Jersey! This place is a little slice of Heaven on earth! I have been wanting to go to the Atlantic Ocean since we moved to the east coast, but it just never worked out. The stars must have aligned because the last weekend before school started Justin ended up having the weekend off. We had to go to Kindergarten orientation Friday morning, and when Zaralyn and I got home, Justin and I decided to just throw our swim suits in and go! One last hoo-rah before it was officially school and fall and not summer. We checked into our cute little condo at the Ocean 7

and headed to the beach!

I guess in the summer months the beach is just packed, but we nearly had the beach to ourselves. It was so beautiful! We walked the beach and picked up sea shells along the way. The sea shells were all over and we now have a very nice collection. Seriously it was so amazing!

All of the kids loved playing in the sand. They built sand castles and filled up buckets, and Silas ate it, but they all loved it!

We stayed on the beach until is was dark and then we grabbed dinner on the boardwalk and put the kids to bed. We decided that the next morning we wanted to get up early and get back out on the beach. We got up around 7 am and the beach was stunning! It was so quiet and beautiful. I swear I could sell everything I own and move to the beach. I love it there!

Silas was ready for his morning nap, so he took it :)

Here is just a quick snapshot of the boardwalk. In the mornings it is covered with bicycles and surrey's (multiple seater bikes) It is so fun! There are fun little shops, and tons of places to eat and play miniture golf. We did that too. Zaralyn loved playing, and Brylee got bored of it very quickly. It wasn't really easy playing and chasing Silas, but we did it. It is a memory anyways, right?

Another quick snapshot of the beach. It was so pretty!

After miniature golf we decided that the beach was calling our names again, so we changed back into our swim suits and spent the afternoon relaxing and playing in the sand. It was so nice. Saturday night we spent at the carnival rides on the board walk. Of course the kids LOVED this too! We all had a great time.This was seriously the best mini vacation ever. I am already ready to go back. I love being adventurous with Justin and the kids. Thanks for always being a good sport. Love you babe!

Grandma Millett

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 03:39:00 +0000

I guess one small perk of Justin and I flying emergently out to Utah was getting to see some family. We stayed at my Uncle David and Aunt Paula's house (thank you!) and it was so nice to get to see them. My grandma and Aunt Vicky also came over for dinner and a visit. We never really get the chance to visit them while we are out west, so this was a nice time. I snapped a few pictures with my grandma. She is as beautiful as ever, and it was so good to see her. Love you grandma!

Zaralyn's Broken Elbow

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 05:11:00 +0000

So this is going to be a long post, but I figure it is probably just easier to put this all in one post even though this is a few months in the making. Wednesday August 15, 2012 I was finishing up the last of my radiation treatment. The kids were coming home the next day and I was so excited to have them home. It had been a long week doing the radiation, and I was ready to see my babies again. Justin came home from work and he and I decided that since I was officially ok'd to be out in public again, we would head out and go to a movie. The show was almost over when my phone started ringing. It was my dad. I figured that they were getting ready to put the kids to bed and they were calling for our nightly phone call. So I silenced the call and figured I would call him back in a few minutes when the movie was over. Then Justin's phone rang. Again, we silenced it because the movie was almost over (less than 5 minutes was left) As soon as the credits hit, I dialed my dad, and as we were walking out, he answered. He said, "I am so sorry!" We were somewhat confused and asked why. He said, "Didn't you listen to my message?" Us: "Umh, no, what's going on?" "Zaralyn has broken her arm. We are in the ambulance right now headed from the ER by David's house to Primary Children's Hospital. She has to have emergency surgery!" That is when my stomach hit the floor. Oh my heck! This seriously couldn't be happening. The kids were supposed to be coming home to us the next afternoon.

Justin and I weighed our options. I was supposed to go back down to Danville the next day for my whole body scan to finalize the radiation treatment that I had received. I called the hospital and was able to talk to the on-call nuclear medicine doctor and he told me that the scan would not change my prognosis or treatment at all. He told me that given the situation we could just cancel the scan. With his permission, Justin and I were online booking tickets to SLC. There were two seats left on the 7am nonstop flight out of Philadelphia, so we booked them. I had the doctor fax me a note so that I could get through the airport while still slightly radioactive (and not be questioned like a terrorist), we threw some clothes in a suit case and drove down to Philly. I was able to speak with the surgeon prior to Zaralyn's surgery (I had to consent to her surgery) and he was quite reassuring. He explained the surgery and that they were going to place pins in her elbow and that they were somewhat worried because the placement of the broken bone was impairing her circulation to her hand. The couldn't get a good pulse on her hand of the broken left arm. I also was in constant contact with my dad and I was even able to talk to Zaralyn for a few minutes. Our teary conversation was hard on this mama. I couldn't get across the country fast enough! We got down to the airport around 3am. I took a picture of where we parked just in case, lol We were running on very minimal sleep at this point.

By the time that we landed in SLC around 10:30am MST, Zaralyn was being discharged. My dad was able to leave the hospital and he and Zaralyn picked us up from the airport. I jumped in the back seat with my girl and snuggled her tight. It had been a LONG couple weeks. We went back to my Uncle David and Aunt Paula's house to figure out what was next. Zaralyn was in a lot of pain, so we spent most of the day hanging out watching movies and catching naps. (I was also so excited to see Brylee and Silas!!! This mama loves her kiddos, and our forced separation was not fun!) By that night Zaralyn was starting to move around a little bit and they got out the American Girl dolls. Even with her broken elbow, she couldn't resist playing.

The doctors at Primary Children's suggested we stay at least a week so that they could hard cast Zaralyn's arm, but they were referring us to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, so they said that we could start follow up care there in a week if we wanted to. Again, we weighed our options and decided that we were exhausted with everything that had happened, and we just wanted to go home. We called the airline and booked tickets for Friday afternoon. The next morning, I took a few more pictures. This is the swing set that Zaralyn fell off of. The monkey bars are pretty tall.

Grandpa and his girl under the monkey bars.

Then of course Brylee wanted a picture too :)

In a good mood and looking beautiful. Ready for our flight home.

We requested a wheel chair so that Justin and I could make it with all of the kids through the airport.

The kids thought this was pretty cool :)

Our flight went well and by about 3am Saturday morning we were home in our own beds. With all three kiddos in theirs :) Zaralyn was pretty depended on her pain med for the first week. We followed up the next week with CHOP (August 22, 2012) and after a very lengthy appointment wait time, CHOP is a level 1 trauma center and apparently they had quite a few trauma's the day were were there. Not fun waiting several hours with 3 kids when we were expecting a quick doctors appointment. We finally did get in to see the doctor, and these were her x-rays.

And after the doctor looked at those and said that everything looked good, we were sent down to the cast room. Zaralyn was shown all of the available colors and she was adamant that she wanted white. I tried talking her into pink or purple, but she wouldn't have it. She said that she wanted to doodle all over it and she wanted it to show up (smart girl!). So white it was.

The next day she asked me to help her get the doodles started. She was requesting a few specific things. A rainbow, a ladybug, and she wanted all of us to sign her cast. She is such a cutie!

She had to keep the cast on for four weeks, so as time went on it got doodled on more and more, and she LOVED getting to have people sign her cast. She requested that I bring the sharpies everywhere with us. She was so smart to get the white cast, because it sure did turn out cute!

Four weeks later we were back down in Philadelphia for more x-rays (September 10, 2012). You can see on the right side of her arm right above the pointy part of the pins there is beautiful new bone forming! Yay that is just what we want!

So... the hard cast came off :) They gave her headphones to help with the noise of the machine.

And it was off!

These were the pins. They had to come out too. It makes me cringe just thinking about this.

The doctor had me sit on the table next to Zaralyn and give her a hug. He had a pair of needle nose pliers to remove the pins. He said "This is what we call a New Jersey mosquito bite. It's going to hurt a little, but not too bad." Then he grabbed her arm and one by one yanked the pins out of her bone. She was crying, I was cringing because I could hear it sliding out of the bone like nails on a chalk board. Oh it was awful! Zaralyn told me later that it didn't really hurt, she was just really scared, so I guess it isn't really that bad after all.

The doctor put her in a half splint (aka the bottom portion of her hard cast and an ace bandage wrap) and said that she had to wear that for four more weeks. (How has it already been this long?)

I am happy to report that as of last week she is cast free! Her arm seems to have healed up nicely and she shouldn't need any physical therapy or anything. She is using her arm more and more and she can almost touch her shoulder with her fingers again. We do have a follow up appointment in November for more x-rays, but as long as everything looks great at that appointment, we are all done. Yay! So... is anyone still reading this way long post? If you are then props to you! That was like two and a half months of our life, lol

zaralyn's stitches

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 03:00:00 +0000

While the kids were in Utah, my parents took them to the Rec Center to go swimming. (Friday August 13, 2012) The kids were all having a blast swimming and running around going up and down the slides when Zaralyn came out of a slide and ran into a water spout post thing. She kinda rubbed her head and ran off to go down the slide. By the time that she came down the slide her head was covered in blood. Needless to say my dad had to take her to go and get some stitches. He sounded like he felt so bad when he called me to tell me that he was taking her to the ER. I just was sad that I couldn't be there to hold her hand. :( (stupid cancer!) She was pretty teary when I talked to her on the phone, but I think just talking to me made her miss me and tear up more. Once she was at the hospital she did great! She got two stitches in her forehead. They wanted her to go back to take the stitches out, but my dad told them that they would be back in PA, so the doctor just handed him the scissors and said, "Well, I guess you can take them out then." :) So this is Justin and my dad removing her stitches (On Friday August 17, 2012). Zaralyn was one tough cookie for this! Love you sweetheart!

I-131 Radiation Treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 06:58:00 +0000

Where to start with this post? It has been so long since all of this has happened, that this post feels extra hard to write. Since I had Thyroid cancer, my doctors recommended I-131 Iodine Radiation Treatment and in preparation for that treatment, I had to do several things. I had to go on a very strict low-iodine diet, and then I also had to have several injections to prepare my body before I could receive the treatment. Then I had to actually take the treatment. I did my treatment in August 2012.

The low-iodine diet is referred to by me as "the starvation diet"! I am sure that this diet is pretty dang awful at any point, but it was so much harder that we weren't at home while I had to be on this diet. Most of the things that I could have had to be fresh. (Not easy when you are living out of a suitcase and a car) I could have a very limited amount of fresh, organic-nothing added to it- beef, pork or chicken, but there was hardly any seasoning that could go on anything so all of that tasted very bland. Plus I had to cook it all at once and then keep it in a cooler to eat while we were traveling etc. (which was super not fun while everyone else was eating at restaurants). I couldn't have anything prepackaged, processed, and no restaurants no soy products, no dairy, no canned foods, no commercial bread or rolls, no processed boxed cereals, potato chips, etc, no eggs, no fast foods, no lunch meat, no salted foods of any kind, no sea salt, no Chinese food, no condiments or sauces, no drinks except for water, fresh juice and COKE! I could drink Coca-cola! (Hallelujah! I usually don't like the stuff, but you had better believe I was drinking it to get me through this!)

There actually is a low-iodine cookbook for Thyroid cancer patients that was extremely helpful. It had a recipe for bread that wasn't too bad, so I made that at my mom's before we left for Idaho. It would have been much easier to try some of this cookbook's recipe's if we were at home and not traveling. Like I said, traveling made this sooooo much harder! Anyways, I won't carry on and on about this diet like I already have, but pretty much I was left with fresh fruits and veggies (no dips or dressings mind you) and the very small portions of meats and drinks that I mentioned above. You try going cold turkey on a very bland almost vegan diet and we'll see how you feel, but Physically, mentally and emotionally this diet was DRAINING!! There was more than one occasion that Justin took me to the grocery store to try and find something...anything... that I could eat that was approved by my list, and I ended up sobbing on his shoulder in the middle of the store. I think it was out of frustration, fear and probably hunger. This diet was HARD!! In just under two weeks on this diet I lost 11 pounds. Not a fun way to do this.

There was so much going on in my head trying to deal with the fact that I had cancer, that I felt like the two weeks on this diet I was a total wreck. I am so sorry to all of you that were around me during this time. Thank you for being there Justin. I could never have done this without you!

When it was finally time to head back to Pennsylvania so that I could start treatment, I had to deal with leaving my three babies at my parents house. Thank you mom and dad!! But man that was HARD too! The kids weren't allowed to be at the house due to all of the restrictions I had once I would take the radiation. (aka becoming a hermit) We were all doing so good and the kids were happy to be staying at grandma and grandpa's house, and then when we were outside ready to leave Zaralyn lost it. She was so upset and didn't want me to leave. It broke my heart! We did eventually settle her down and Justin and I left to drive across the country to make it back to Pennsylvania in time for my radiation treatment.

We left Sunday night around 8pm and drove straight through for two days straight until we hit Danville, PA at 5am Tuesday morning. I had my first Thyrogen injection appointment at 11am, so we got a hotel to catch a few hours of sleep and a shower before my appointment. I had those appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday and they weren't too bad. I just got the injections and we were able to go.

On Thursday Justin and I made the trip back down to Danville (again!) so that I could take the radiation treatment. If I am being totally honest, the whole time I just wanted to bail. I begged Justin to take me home and go pick up the kids and just forget the whole thing ever happened. Justin was my rock through all of this. He let me cry, be depressed, and act irrational, and somehow he still loved and comforted me and got me through it all. Thank you babe!

After a lot of blood work, I had a consult with the Nuclear Medicine doc. They should have given me this consult before I started the diet. I think it would have been easier. He told me that everyone always complains that the diet is much harder than the actual radiation treatment. (Boy was he right!). He answered all of our questions and he explained how everything was going to work in great detail. He was awesome! Then they let Justin hug and kiss me goodbye and they had him leave to get the car pulled around. I had to sit in a chair in a small little room while a lady wheeled in a cart with a sealed medal container. She opened it and there were several viles inside of each other that she opened and then she popped a little blue pill into a cup. I simply swallowed the pill with some water and that was it. I was officially radioactive. Then she left and I had to stay there for about 15 more minutes while the guy with the geiger counter checked my radiation levels. I was escorted from the hospital and I sat in the back seat as Justin and I drove home.

I didn't really feel anything that first day, but I just felt depressed. I layed on the couch and watched tv. I was still on the starvation diet so I didn't really want to do anything. By the next morning though, I could feel the radiation. It just felt like I had been poisoned and my body was doing everything it could to get rid of that poison. I. Felt. Awful. I had an upset stomach, diarrhea, all over body aches and a sore throat. The time came and went when my diet could return back to normal, but instead of celebrating with Chinese food like Justin and I had planned, he had to go to work, and I ate nothing. Nothing sounded good for days. As the days went on, I felt a little bit better every day. It lasted for 4-5 days and then I was feeling pretty normal. I don't know what was wrong with me because the whole thing sounds so easy describing it like this, but I was so depressed I layed on the couch for days and I even had a hard time just Skyping with my kiddos. I loved them and missed them so much, but it was hard to talk to everyone and be the butt of everyone's (lighthearted) jokes. Everything just reminded me that I was different. That I had cancer and everyone else didn't. It. Was. Hard. nuff said.

I should have gone back at one week for a whole body scan, but Zaralyn fell off of the monkey bars and broke her elbow. That is the next post though...

At any rate, I survived! That's right, I am a thyroid cancer survivor!

I have my first follow up appointment with the Endocrinologist this week and I will see where I go from here, but as of right now I am feeling pretty good and glad that this part of the treatment is over.

Brynli Nicole Long

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 04:43:00 +0000

I just want to post about sweet baby Brynli. Her mommy Brittney is one of my best friends and I am so heartbroken that this sweet little girl was taken back to heaven so soon. I do however feel so blessed that we were still in Utah and able to attend her viewing before Justin and I had to head back to Pennsylvania. She will always be remembered here on earth while she is busy up in heaven. Love her.

Visiting Marlee and Eason

noreply@blogger.com (Nichole) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 04:28:00 +0000

While we were in Vernal, we stayed with Brandon and Trista. The kids love playing with their cousins. Silas and Eason are only a few days apart, so it is fun to see them together. Thank you so much Brandon and Trista for putting us up and putting up with us :) You guys are great!

Silas loves to do yoga, lol He does downward dog all the time! :)

The girls wanted to have a little mini photo shoot, so we snapped a few pictures outside. They loved playing with Marlee. She is a cutie!

Silly Faces!