Haven's 6th Birthday Party

Some of the heart cakes that Haven and Grandma made!

Beautiful cake from the Make-A-Wish ladies and it was a Cold Stone cake - best I've ever eaten! Cup cakes made by Haven!

Haven and Grandma ready for the festivities!

Miss Lauren came to see Haven for her birthday. We haven't seen Lauren since going in to isolation last June so it was very nice to see her!

Time to open presents. All eyes on Miss Haven!

My friend Emily, left, came to see Haven for her birthday too. So very nice!

Haven and her beautiful new fuzzy purse!

We got Haven a Wii Fit for her birthday. I have to tell you - she has already used it and did 10 minutes on step aerobics and climbed 720 steps!!!! She did a total 30 minute workout!

Well it's time for bed. We have a car picking us up at 6:30am tomorrow to head to Florida! We are super excited. Love to all and thank you everyone for coming to her parties!


To see all of Haven's photos check out her FLICKR site!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/haven_fowler/

Make-A-Wish Party

Miss Haven was dressed for the party. Looking beautiful in her polka dot dress and pixie hair. She was just the cutest girl I've ever seen!

Sandy and Lori came to bring her wish supplies and with it came a beautiful princess bear - complete with dress and high heels.

She also got a backpack full of goodies for the plane like art supplies (triangle crayons so they don't roll), snacks for the plane and markers that only write on the special book! Perfect!

Lori, Haven, Sandy and of course, Princess Bear. THANK YOU MAKE-A-WISH and THANK YOU LORI AND SANDY. We can't thank you enough! We are packed and ready for DISNEY!

Birthday Preparations

Friday evening Grandma and Grandpa arrived for Haven's party weekend. Quickly Grandma, Haven, and Grandpa jumped to making the birthday cup cakes that Haven had picked out.

The cup cakes were cute little pink heart shapes. They did a great job and the cup cakes were delicious!

Afterwards Grandma and Haven worked on their looming project. Grandma helped by showing Haven how to do it and then Haven took over! As you can see in the background Deez is happily napping!

Ready to party!!!

We are ready to party this weekend! Haven and I have been cleaning each day and today she vacuumed the entire upstairs. She is so ready to have her parties. After cleaning she and Deez decided to take a rest. They looked so adorable together I had to snap a photo! I'm not sure what they are going to do without each other next week!

During the cleaning frenzy I found a bag of blonde hair.....couldn't figure out where the hair came from. Then I found the doll. I asked Haven what happened her reply was "I wanted to cut her hair so she could be beautiful like me"

You guessed it.....I couldn't get upset. I had to giggle. She had even put a ribbon in the doll's hair. So cute....I just love her!

First Schnauzer Cut

Deez got her first Schnauzer hair cut this weekend. Although you can't really tell here - because she won't sit still long enough for a photo - it is beautiful.

This is where she always is. If she's not in her secret bed under the table she is in Haven's lap. They just love each other! Definitely spoiled!

Puppy School Saturday

Saturday mornings at 10am Haven and I take Deezy to school. She has a 1 hour class each Saturday which helps us in training her to be a good girl.

The first week she learned immediately to sit and lay down....but she is the talker of the class! She has a bit of ADD....this week the guy took her and let her mingle with the other dogs and it really helped. She stopped barking and started paying attention to us.

Miss Deez playing with a Chihuahua...she wouldn't talk much with the big dogs but liked smacking around the little one

Miss Haven...having fun at puppy school

Middle of class we had to switch dogs and rotate to the left every minute. This gets the dog used to be handled by other people. Deezy of course loved it - she loves everyone.

Haven terrified of a 2 pound Chihuahua....I was almost embarrassed!!! What she forgot was to get the treats out of her hands before playing with dogs!

Oncology day and visiting Dr. Cooper's

Haven had a busy day last Friday. First she went to Oncology for her appointment. This was just to get labs and check up on her progress. She is looking great.

Lost 2 pounds
Grown 1/2 inch

Awesome stuff. Her blood pressure is remaining constant since Hi CY and her personality is amazing. The doctors are so happy with how she has changed. She even read Dr. Suess to her doctor. They can't believe how she has changed - she used to come in and stare at the ground and have a mad look. Now she is in there talking everyone's ear off and playing with the games and kids.

She was surprised with another immune test. She had to get a poke and wasn't happy about that. This is to test her immune system - we won't know anything for about 6 weeks. But it did leave her with a fever on Friday and Saturday.

I was off work early on Friday so it was a perfect to take her to visit her nurses at Dr. Cooper's. She hasn't been there in a long time - way before isolation this summer. We didn't get to see Dr. Cooper but all the girls were there.

Nurse Dana got her a present and she spent about 2 - 3 hours immediately when we got home fashion designing clothes and shoes!

We also took a trip to her school and met the kindergarten teacher there. She has never been in a school and wanted to see what it was like. She got to see the desks and lockers and take a tour of the entire school. She had a lot of fun.

Gearing up for 2010

These two can't seem to get enough sleep!

We're gearing up for a run of events and doctors this month and February. It all kicks off on January 23rd.

Haven's 6th birthday is on January 26th and we're headed to Disney for her Make-A-Wish trip on the 25th. So after talking with Aunt Katie we decided to combine Haven and Stryder's birthdays and do it on the 23rd.

January 15th she'll spend the day in Oncology

January 23rd is PACKED!

9am - vet

10am - puppy school

11:30am - MAKE-A-WISH PARTY

3pm- birthday party

6pm - Chuck-E-Cheese

How it happened that everything is on the same day is amazing. I couldn't plan better if I tried.

Make-A-Wish called and we'll be having her party around 11:30. I'm very excited. Hopefully Haven is ready. We've already received our letter from Give Kids The World. We have our flight schedules. I'm more excited this year because Haven will remember more of it. She was on so much medication before and slept through everything. Plus this is an entirely different experience. Not only is it Disney but they are sending her to Universal Studios and Sea World. After a year like last year she deserves this fun week.

February 8th she has an MRI at 8am. Has to be at the hospital by 7am. This will definitely be a full day. They will be doing an MRI of the brain as well, due to her high prolactin levels. We'll be looking for any sign of a tumor on the pituitary. Hopefully we will not find anything.

February 11th will be a day at Kennedy Krieger Institute for her full evaluation with a specialist there. I am curious about this appointment. It's extremely hard to get in to KKI and I'm interested as to what they are going to say.

We still have a sleep study coming up but usually they call me with only a few days notice.

Winter Blues

Well this winter has been COLD so we haven't done much. Even had to go out and buy two space heaters for the house. It's so cold the furnace just can't keep up.

Haven started school back up last week. All of her grades were turned in to the school from last semester. She caught up with them very fast and the last two weeks were just review. She's reading Dr. Seuss books to me now and it's awesome.

She and Deez are like best friends now. If Haven sits down the dog is on her lap. Haven is finally getting used to her and loving her like crazy. She does get a bit jealous when Stryder comes over and Deez wants to play with him. She keeps a close eye on her.

Last weekend was Deez's first day of puppy school. She did a great job, however, she is the talkative one in class. All the other puppies sat there quietly....not Deez. She is as opinionated as the rest of us. She also went to the groomer afterwards for a small trim. I was barely able to get a picture with the bow in her hair before she pulled it out. Haven went with her to puppy school and learned a few tricks to teach her.

Grandpa Beard-off and Grandma Sing sent Haven an apple pealer for Christmas and it has been used over and over. She loves it - especially since she won't eat the skin of an apple!

She lives in her hat and jackets. Every time I see her she has a new hat on. Her hair is growing back in fast though. She keeps reminding me that she will be able to wear a ponytail soon.

Ha ha...Make-A-Wish just called...they remembered that Haven told them she'd never had ice cream in her entire life and wanted to know if she was allergic to it or if they could bring some to her. If they only knew how many times I hear that she has been denied something her entire life. The other night she informed me that she has been waiting her entire life to have a baked potato. Awesome!

Haven's 2009 Year In Review

Highlights:

Disney trip - Thank you to Johns Hopkins Riverside for adopting our family

Chemo Treatments: Cyclosporin, Rituxan, High Dose Cytoxin, High Dose Dexamethasone

Isolation: All Summer for High Dose Cytoxin and October for High Dose Dexamethasone

Surgeries: Eye surgery, Foot surgery, Central Line insertion, Central Line removal

Days spent in hospitals or doctors offices: 180


Thank you to everyone that helped us get through 2009. We hope for more fun and less hospitals in 2010!

Nap Time

2009 year in review to come.......it's was a crazy year - ended the same as it began - INSANE!

ok...I had a year in review up and then hackers broke in - so now it is down. I guess I could just do a million photos.