Halloween!

We celebrated Halloween so much before October 31st, that by the time the real day came around, the boys were over it and didn't want to go trick-or-treating!  Caleb was a Wisconsin Badger football player and Isaac was a NBA basketball player.

We finally carved our pumpkins, which both boys actually participated in this year.  Although Isaac had to wipe his hands each time after he put it in the pumpkin!

Seriously, aren't they the CUTEST??!!

We started off the festivities at he Herda's annual Halloween party (on the 26th).  We went trick-or-treating in their old neighborhood, where everyone goes all out with decorating their houses, dressing up, and partying and trying to scare little kids. Our "crew" has grown!

Our subdivison is half in the Town of Vernon and half in the Village of Big Bend.  Kind of confusing.  For some reason, they don't have their trick-or-treating on the same day!  We went with our friends in Vernon on the 27th during the day.  Big Bend (where our house is) had theirs on the 31st at night, but we ended up at our neighbors just hanging out and letting the kids play.  By that time, they all had way more than enough candy.  Plus it was freezing cold and raining.

Fall Ball

Joel agreed to coach a fall baseball team for the Firebirds league this fall.  Because he was the coach, Caleb and Isaac got to play together!  The team definitely had a wide range of abilities, but they all had a lot of fun.  Every one of them improved during the season!  Because of cancellations due to rain, the last game was on October 26th and it was 45 degrees!  So cold!  Again, I took most a ton of pictures on my phone, but here's a few I took with my real camera during the season.

Night game playing "Under the lights!"

Our little catcher (Isaac)

Caleb playing first

Last game! 

Driveway!

Everyone who we know who has built a house has said that their house has so much less dust after the driveway goes in.  I am hoping that is true because I could dust/vacume everyday, and our wood still looks dusty!

I took most of the pictures on my phone, and of course don't know how to put them on my computer, but here's a couple of our driveway being installed.  Yes, it is HUGE!

Yard progress!

I love that we can finally see some progress with our yard!  Because the yard is large, our landscaper started with the back yard and the grass and trees have been planted there.  They also started on the stone steps that lead to the back yard.  I cannot wait until next year when the boys have a yard to play on!  (We do have awesome neighbors who let them play ball in their yards while we wait!)

One of the trees in the front yard:

Next up, a cement driveway! Yahoooo!

Finally lost a tooth!

We knew Caleb would lose his teeth late because he didn't have any teeth until he was 12 months old.  But, we didn't think it would take this long!  During the summer, I noticed that 2 of his permanent teeth on the bottom were coming in behind his baby teeth.  His baby teeth were nowhere near being loose.  I called the dentist and they said it wasn't a big deal and to start wiggling the two baby teeth.  He had a dentist appointment in the beginning of September and I thought for sure they would want to pull them out then.  Nope.  They said to keep wiggling them.  By then, the permanent teeth were completely in behind the baby teeth.  I was furious and we will be switching dentists. His teeth still were not loose at all!

After that, I was on a mission to get those darn teeth out!  We wiggled and wiggled and wiggled some more.  Finally one was loose enough that I thought I could pull it out.  Caleb, the kid with the highest pain tolerance of anyone I know, was on board for me to yank it out.  It took a little twisting, but it did come out...huge root still attached, so it really wasn't "ready" to come out!  (And yes, I had to pull out the other one a couple days later.)  I hope it's not like this with all of his baby teeth!

He was so excited that the tooth fairy brought him a half-silver dollar!

First day of school!

Today was the first day of school!  (Well not completely true for Isaac...he has a half day today and then no school tomorrow, and then school on Thursday and Friday...)  Isaac was SUPER excited.  Caleb, not so much.  Hoping it's a great year in Mrs Johnson and Mrs Gluszcz's classrooms!

LOVE these crazies!

Northern Wisconsin

The past few summers, Joel's family has rented a cabin "Up North" for a week.  This is the first summer we have been able to go.  Even though Caleb still has not been given the okay to swim in lakes, the boys still had a lot of fun.  They fished, and fished and fished some more.  Their papa would have been proud!  There were not many big fish in the lake....most were the size of minnows.  But, Caleb did catch the biggest fish.  Don't worry, he bragged about it nonstop!  (It was a bass about 8 inches long.)  They also enjoyed playing with their cousins and learning how to play the card game "31" with their Grammie.  We were only able to stay 2 nights, but we sure had a lot of fun!

 Scuba diving!

He wanted me to make sure you are aware that this is NOT the "big one" he caught!

Texas Trip!

Caleb had his TWO year post transplant testing done at Texas Children's Hospital.  Whenever we go back there, he is a little celebrity!  He got to see most of his favorite nurses.  And of course we got to hang out with our Elmore family!  Once again, they went above and beyond to make us comfy and spoil Caleb rotten.  I kept telling them that we would have to bring him down from his cloud and back to reality when we got back to Wisconsin!  Our time is always too short when we go back!

We really don't have any results back yet.  Although the ones we do have back have been great!  The pulmonologist there feels like Caleb does NOT need his steroid inhaler and feels that it may be contributing to his lack of growing (he's 39 pounds, and 44 inches), and hindering his adrenal glands from "waking up."  He does not feel that the inhaler is helping his pulmonary function/tests at all.  Caleb is on an adult dose of this inhaler, and his doctor immediately cut the dose in half.  We will go down to the lower dosing in 2 weeks, and then hopefully off 2 weeks after that.  I am praying he is right and I am praying that his pulmonologist here will be on board with this plan....

His chest CT has not changed in 2.5 years, which on one hand is good because it shows his lungs have not gotten worse after getting high doses of chemotherapy and look okay after having pulmonary hypertension.  But not so good on the other hand, because they are not getting better.  His treadmill testing done in July basically showed that his lungs work extremely poorly.  However, he seems to compensate well.  His "numbers" amazed his doctors.  Can he keep up playing tag or soccer, no.  But can he sprint the bases in baseball, YES!!

Here's a few pictures from our trip!

He wanted to bring Ellie flowers, so he picked out 13 roses for her!  I can't remember the name of the player, but apparently he has a favorite baseball player who is number 13....

Some of his very favorite girls!

A trip to TCH is never complete until he gets to play with the trains!

A trip to the Houston Children's Museum.  Showing how his strength!

Dinner date with Ellie and Jake. So much fun!

Firebirds Baseball

Caleb also played for a Waukesha baseball team this summer, the Firebirds.  They improved A LOT through the summer!  Two of Caleb's buddies Jackson and Bennett were on the team, and they all had a great time  Isaac was the bat boy and he took his job very seriously!  I wish I would have been better about taking pictures through the season!

Vernon Baseball

Summer baseball is coming to an end.  Both boys played on Vernon park and rec teams.  Isaac played T-ball again.  Lets just say he will NOT be playing T-ball again.  He is much to advanced for it and could actually hurt another player with his throws (because they aren't paying attention or can't catch.)  Caleb had a lot of fun with his buddies on his team.  Most of them were in his first grade class.  For never practicing, they had a pretty good team!  They are excited that they will be playing on a fall baseball team together this fall!

Isaac and our neighbor Addie.  They are the same age, but she is like a little sister to him!

Back yard!

The work on our yard has FINALLY begun!  And the boys couldn't be more excited!  They have their own sandlot now and have been playing baseball like crazy!

This NEVER would have been allowed before Caleb's bone marrow transplant! They had SO MUCH FUN!!

We can't wait until it's done and we have green grass again!