Christmas 2014

Christmas is such an exciting time of year and this year our family has been blessed beyond measure! Thank you to all who have made this Christmas one we will never forget!

 We spent Christmas Eve with my family and we had an extra special visitor stop by... Michalla's best friend Abby moved in down the street from my parents house. When Lilly would FaceTime with Michalla, Abby was often at the hospital visiting. Lilly feels a connection with Abby. I'm sure we're going to see a lot more of her now that she lives so close! Thanks again for stopping by - you made Lilly's night!

Opening Christmas PJs! The girls could hardly wait to open presents!

Making cookies for Santa!

I love this picture.... Mom thought it would be so funny to jump into our selfie! Here you go Mom! Hahaha!

Christmas morning was crazy! We don't normally go all out for Christmas. It has never been a really big thing for us. But, this year was different. Not only did we give a little extra to our girls, we also had some wonderful Secret Santas that bought for our family too!

We were blown away by all that was given to us! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for making this a memorable year for our family! We truly have been blessed!

Do you think they're surprised!?!

 

Christmas morning with cousins! Grandma and Grandpa Alldredge got the kiddos the softest animal blankets. So cuddly and warm! It was a little bit quieter this year since a lot of family was out of town, but we made the best of it. Later in the afternoon, we all went to the movies - 

that was fun!

Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours! We are grateful for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, His life, and His example. May we all try to be a little more like Him. We hope next year will be full of health and happiness!

Lilly's Christmas Medley with Grandpa

Before Lilly was diagnosed she could hardly walk past a piano without stopping to play some little tune.  The day she found out she had leukemia she thought we were taking her to the hospital to leave her there. So, as we were leaving she was saying good bye to things as though she'd never see them again. The last thing she did was play one last song on the piano. Then came the chemotherapy and what they call "chemo brain", which clouded her mind and made her unable to play the piano. One of my biggest fears for Lilly was the possibility of her recovering from cancer with lost cognitive functions and her splendid talent for piano. That was until this past month or so when she finally reached maintenance. She fell in love with the piano all over again. 

Oh, how it warms our hearts to see her play with such passion again. So, we hope you enjoy this Christmas Medley Lilly and grandpa as much as we do!

May all of you have the Merriest Christmas this year and remember why we celebrate such a wonderful season of love and giving.  It's all because of the gift of Jesus Christ that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven again.  #heisthegift

Happy Birthday Princess Lilly!!

We got the ok from Lilly's oncologist to get her ears pierced for her birthday... She was so excited! We did that on Thursday because our day was so busy on Friday. She also had a CBC scheduled that morning to check her blood levels to see if she could start back on oral chemo. I assumed her numbers were going to be high. She's had no chemo for two weeks. We didn't think anything of it and went and got her ears pierced...

She did such a good job.  It was no big deal. She didn't flinch or anything. Nothing compared to what she's done in the past 10 months. As you can see she smiled through the whole thing. 

 That afternoon, we got a call from Lilly's nurse saying her ANC is only 100! What the heck? I started panicking a little, hoping she would be ok. They told us to just watch her close and make sure her ears don't get infected...

Friday morning, Jay went and got Lilly out of bed so she could snuggle with me. It's her birthday. She deserves it. He picked her up, and she was hot! She had a fever! 101.3 We were in a panic! We had so much planned for the day and it was her BIRTHDAY!! Normally with a fever that high, you automatically go into the hospital, but we were devastated because we had so much going on for Lilly's birthday. We called the on-call oncologist and it was Dr. Doug (aka Prince Eric) who was on-call! Hallelujah! We told him what was going on and he said he wanted to do everything he could to not have her come in on her birthday. He was so cute too... He even sang Happy Birthday to Lilly over the phone! We did everything we could think of to get rid of that fever. We stripped her clothes, took her blankets, and said a lot of prayers that it would go away. It went away within 2 hours. And then we kept praying that it would stay away for the remainder of the day.

Alta high school held a special assembly in Lilly's honor, and it happened to also be on Lilly's birthday. Alta does a fundraiser each year and the past couple of years they've chosen Make-A-Wish to earn money for. I was contacted by Make-A-Wish to see if they could use Lilly's story... And they all fell in love with her and wanted to meet her. Then, they found out it was also her birthday and they went all out! She was treated like royalty! Princes and Princesses galore! A red carpet! Singing! Dancing! All for Lilly! We can't wait for the DVD they will be putting together of the event and we'll make sure to post it here on the blog.

 What ROYAL fun!

Now, onto her Princess Birthday Party! As we were planning Lilly's party it just kept getting bigger and bigger so we held it at our church building. We are so grateful for all who came to support Lilly on her special day.

She was so excited that Rapunzel AND Flynn came to her party! Rapunzel is actually Lilly's pediatrician's daughter! They were so cute with all the kids... And they entertained us too! Thank you so much to Dr. Bosworth and his family for coming. We love you guys!

Lilly LOVES Clint. She was so so excited he was coming to her birthday party! She is so drawn to him. I really feel like Lilly can feel a piece of Michalla when she's around Clint. He's so cute with her too. So sweet! We had 4 cancer families come to Lilly's party. They are family to us. When you go through similar struggles with your children, you become so close. We are glad you all came to party with us!

Madison and Melanee manned the fish pond. Thanks girlies!!

Isn't her cake beautiful? Icing Smiles is a foundation that gives cakes to cancer kiddos. It is so nice to have one less thing to worry about. Kim Fluhrer with Dreamy Cakes is the one who made it. She did a fabulous job!

Lilly felt like a Princess! Happy Birthday sweet sweet girl!

We gave the adults a questionnaire to fill out while the kiddos were playing games. It was all about Lilly. Then, Lilly and her Grandpa played on the piano. They've been practicing to play the next two Sundays in church. They did a beautiful job. When Lilly was going through intense chemo (for the first 9 months), she had "chemo brain" so bad and had no interest whatsoever to even try to play the piano. It was so sad to see... But, it is so wonderful to see her have that desire again! She definitely has a talent for music!

Presents! 

Michalla's Dad gave Lilly a very special present - one of Michalla's shirts! It is a treasure to Lilly and she wore it as a nightgown to sleep in. It is so special to her. 

We almost forgot to do the piñata!!

And then we danced...

Ok, I didn't dance because I was too exhausted. But a lot of people did. My uncle is a DJ, so he brought all the equipment. Thanks Mike! It was a lot of fun! Emery was such a ham to watch dancing! She was hilarious! 

Lilly, we love you so much! You are one of the bravest girls I know! I love your sass! You make me smile and laugh every day! I love that you are close with your Heavenly Father and have a personal relationship with Him. You are a very talented girl and I'm excited for you to become a nail-painting doctor when you grow up! Happy Happy Birthday Lilly Lou!! XOXO