Christmas morning was pretty neat.  Someone had done secret Santa to us a few days before.  

We made the kids wait until Christmas morning to open them.   It was really fun to watch the excitement of our kids.  

On December 26, Simone had another MRI.  We decided to try it without sedation but Simone made the nurse stay with her the whole time because she was scared.   She was a little bit wiggly but she did pretty good for a little kid.  We will have to see next time if she can do it herself.  

December 28th we met with her doctor and found out that Simone tumor is stable.  That there wasn't really any growth since her last MRI.  So it looks like the chemotherapy is working.   We are happy with the results and hope and pray that it will continue working. 

This same day Simone had another round of chemotherapy.  She was pretty sick for about 3 days but bounced back pretty quick to her old self.  She is tough!

We are so thankful for the prayers and the kindness show to us.  We love you!

On Monday, Nov 30,  Simone had another round of Chemo.  This time it really knocked the wind out of her.   It takes her longer to bounce back every time.  By the 4th day she started to feel better.  She is so tough.  That same week on Friday we went to the ear dr. to check her new tubes.  It was somewhat good news because the chemo hasn't affected her hearing.  With chemo it affects the high pitches.  It showed she can hear those but the lower tones were not so good.  We will do another test in a few months to see if her hearing is better.


Thursday we went to the Festival of Trees.  The Young Women of the ward decorated a tree for Simone.  It was a Frozen tree.  Simone loved it!  The girls and their leaders are so AWESOME!  It was so neat to see Simone's picture there.  It touched my heart.

On Sunday, Dec 6, the Young Women of our ward and there leaders surprised us.  Everyone came in our house first.  There probably was around 20 people.  We had no idea what was going on.  Kimberly Dean was so cute how she talked to Simone about her tree.  Kimberly is the sweetest lady.  Then she told Simone to go look out the front door.  On the front porch was her Frozen Tree and an amazing wreath.  It was AWESOME!  The company, Crest Financial, that had purchased Simone's tree wanted to give it to her.  There are no words to describe how special this moment was.
 It was INCREDIBLE!

Thank you for everyone who donated there time and money to make this happen.  You are Awesome!

On Tuesday, Nov 17, the Young Women of our ward put on a special princess party for Simone.  It was so awesome.  I think this will be one of Simone's greatest memories.  I was extremely humbled and amazed at how much work they put into it.  Thanks for all who helped to put this together.       We love you!

On Monday, Oct 19 we went in for another round of chemo.  Before her appointment we went to the audiologist to check her ears.  Chemo can sometimes cause hearing loss.  She failed her hearing test so we had to make an appointment with ear doctor to make sure her tubes were working correctly.
Simone did well with this chemo.  Just a little tired.
This same week on Thursday she saw her ear doctor and sure enough her tubes were all blocked up.  So here we go again another ear surgery.
Oct 27, Simone had her ear surgery and also had her adenoids removed to help with her snoring.

She bounced back really quick.  She was feeling good.  So we decided to go to St. George for Halloween.  The kids had so much fun.  While we were in St. George we noticed Simone's hair is starting to fall out.  She is sad about it but I think she will still be her fun self.

This Monday, Nov 2, she went in for another round of Chemo.  This time she received both chemo medicines.  She did fine.  The nurses gave her a  real stethoscope and blood pressure cuff and pump to play with.  She wanted to take them home so badly.  I told her she couldn't but she kept begging so I said ask the nurse.  They told her other kids want to play with them too so she couldn't.
This picture is her pouting about it.  It is too silly!

In the morning, on Tuesday, around 230 she came in really sick.   I had to give her some nausea medicine.  She fell back asleep but when she woke up in the morning she was super sick.  She was throwing up and couldn't keep anything down.  She was running a fever.  So back we go to the Dr.
They had to access her port again to do some blood work to make sure she didn't have an infection or anything else was wrong.  They also hydrated her and gave her some nausea medicine.  She felt better so they let us go home after being there about 4hrs.  We are getting so good at waiting.

Simone continues to amaze me.  Yesterday we went to Primary's for another chemo treatment.  She had to get her port accessed.  We put some numbing cream on her port an hour earlier so it wouldn't hurt.  Before we went in the room, a lady came to talk to us about how it would happen and Simone didn't seem scared by it at all. When we got to the room Simone sat on my lap.  The nurses were really gentle with her.  They accessed the port and Simone was perfectly still.  She said it didn't hurt at all and she was happy that she didn't have to have blood drawn from her hand anymore.  She is the bravest little girl I know.  We love her so much!  

 

On Sunday, Oct 4, we had a big family surprise party for Simone.  Her face was hilarious. I missed getting a picture of it. Darn it!  She had a great time and loved having everyone there.  She was spoiled!

On Tuesday, Oct 6,  around 11am Simone had her port placed.  It was nerve racking for us.  She was very nervous too.  She hasn't questioned any of this.  Maybe just seems normal to her to have to do all of this.  When she got out of surgery she was still very groggy but manage to tell the nurses it was her birthday the next day and asked if they were going to sing to her,. They did and it was so awesome!

 Later that day, around 6pm, she had her first round of chemotherapy in the port.  It takes about 1 hr for it to go in from the drip.  It doesn't hurt at all when it goes in.  Also, we had a nurse,  Emily, from our old ward in West Jordan helping us.  It was comforting to have someone we know be there.  She was a great help to us.  After Simone had her chemo her anesthesiologist came in to check on how she was doing.  She was doing very well and she also told him that it was her birthday the next day and asked him to sing also.  He and the nurse and Matt and I also sang too.  She loved it! It was Awesomely funny!

Tom and Amber also came to visit.  She was happy to see them.  It was fun to have them there.

 We stayed over night into Wednesday to make sure everything was fine.  In the morning the nurses and her oncologist came in and surprised her with a song and a bunch of cute gifts.  She was so happy!    We went home about 11am. 

Early Thursday morning Simone came in our bedroom and was throwing up.  She had a temperature of 103.  I had to take her back to the hospital about 230 in the morning.  They drew some blood.  Her blood count looked good.   They said it was something probably viral or just recovering from surgery.  I am glad everything was ok.  We didn't want to spend more time in the hospital than we had to.  So they sent us home about 6am. 

This week has been crazy and stressful.   I hope Simone does well on this Chemotherapy as she did on her other chemo.  We will see.

Last Wednesday we went in for an MRI.  Things are not going as we hoped it would.  It showed Simone's tumor is still growing.  Her platelets were also really low so she had to receive a blood transfusion.  
This picture is her waiting to receive it.  She was so good and didn't even complain. She is amazing and doesn't put up a fuss for any of it.   We love her so much!

Next week we will be putting a port in her chest.  She will be receiving a different type of chemotherapy.  We are hoping and praying that this will work.   
She is a champ and a princess!