Last week was packed with fun.  We were on vacation for part of it in Lake Powell.   Simone and her brothers and sister had so much fun.  They all loved the water and enjoyed hanging out with all of their cousins. Good times with Family!

 Simone is going in for her MRI this week.  Keep a little prayer in your heart for her. We are hoping everything looks good.  If it is she will be getting chemo again and she will only have 2 left.  Hooray!

Just wanted to give an update on Simone since it's been a couple of months.  Simone has been doing pretty good.  She had her May chemotherapy treatment and had to receive a blood transfusions a couple weeks later. Her counts were too low.  You could tell she was really tired.  Lounging around.  The transfusions make her feel a lot better and she is running around again.  She is a fighter.

Last week she had another chemotherapy treatment and it was pretty rough.  It make her sick for about 5 days .  Normally it is 3 or 4.  For some reason it really was tough to get over this time.  The next day  after her chemo we had to go to the emergency room because she had a temp of 103 just to make sure she didn't have any infections.  She received some fluids and antibiotics and the only thing she had was the Rhino virus which is the common cold so we were sent home.  Simone has 3 more chemotherapy treatments.  I am pretty excited about that. We hope and pray that this will stop the tumor from ever growing again.  In July she has another MRI to make sure the chemo is working.  I am pretty sure it is because I haven't seen anything different about her that would alarm me in any way.  She just seems her normal cute self.

On Monday Simone had her MRI.  The tumor has stayed the same.  No new growth.  We are pretty happy about that.  Simone also received chemotherapy the same day and surprisingly it was better than usual.  She had a pretty good night and only threw up once.  It was really amazing actually how well her body handled it this time.  I believe it's because of all the people who are praying for her.  

On Tuesday night around 930 she was having a high fever of 103 so I had to take her back to the hospital to make sure there wasn't any infections. They took her blood samples.  They gave her antibiotics and fluid to take care of any infection that she might have.  Everything looked o.k. so we were able to go back home around 2. 

Every time we go to the doctor or some hospital visit of some sort.  Simone always manages to charm everyone.  People are drawn to her.  She has such sweet spirit about her and I am so lucky that she is my daughter.

In mid March Simone had her 6th treatment.   She did alright.  Just the usual sick for about 3 or 4 days and then feeling better.  She's had her up and downs of feeling tired this month but she is such a trooper.  What an amazing girl.  In this past month she also lost 4 teeth on the bottom in a matter of a week.  She kept the tooth fairy busy!

Next week we are doing an MRI to see if the chemotherapy is still working.  I am a bit of a nervous wreck.  It's funny I can go almost 3 months doing o.k. in between MRI's but the last week is always the worst.  If the chemotherapy is working we will continue on.  6 more treatments to go.
 Keep Simone in your prayers.  She needs them!

Thursday, Jan 14, When Simone woke up.  She looked terrible. She was so pale.  I could tell something was wrong.  She asked me if her legs were broken and said her body hurt.  That made me feel so bad.  I called the Dr and they told me to come in.  Her blood counts were so low.  She had to receive blood transfusions.   I could tell after she received it she felt so much better.  She also had a chocolate doughnut.  That makes anyone feel happy!

 
Jan 23, for Simone's sisters birthday we went ice skating.  I have to share some pictures.  She is so funny.   In these pictures she is pretending to be a Grandma.  It is hilarious.

 Yesterday, Feb 16, we finally had Simone's 5th round of chemo.  She is feeling sick but not as bad as last time.  They lowered her dose a little bit since it took so long for her blood counts to come up.  We were supposed to have it the last week of January. It was hard to get the results each time and not be able to go do it.  It is a bit nerve racking.  She had an entire extra month off because of it. I could tell that she was feeling good to be off of it though.  She was running around more than I had seen her do in a long time.
Yesterday I found out that she has 7 more treatments instead of 1 more. We will finish around October hopefully if her blood counts stay where we can continue each month.  I am bummed about this but we will get through this.  She is the best kid.  When the nurse comes each week to draw her blood he just can't believe how she sits still and lets him do it.  She is so calm and sweet.  I can't get enough of her.  We love her so much. 

 

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!