Christmas is here we made it through the year yeah!!!!!!!!!!!! The girls took their very first fantastic photo with Santa this year...BEAUTIFUL.....but I'm bias I guess. We are ready and the girls are very excited to spend a holiday at home since last Christmas.....they both never want to leave the house since we returned from Vancouver, I'm mostly good with that except when we have no food in the house and the girls are fighting not to leave the house.....is that weird.....lol.

Everything is getting back to normal for the most part just living our day to day lives with nothing to report, hence the no blogging. We didn't think any one would be interested in hearing that we've been hanging out together, watching movie, playing games and simply just enjoy being back home. Brenn and Sam started their Christmas holidays from school, Scott is working tomorrow but then is not having to be back to work until Wednesday next week. I've been preparing our house and meal for Christmas...life in a nut shell.

Brenn had her second treatment of maintenance but the first here in Prince George last week, it seemed to go alright all in all. The hospital staff on the pedi's floor was great, Brenn wasn't scared and they made it a good experience for her. She was ill from the chemo the next day so she stayed home from school (Scott and I will need to set our alarm so that she can have an anti-nauseant med in the middle of the night), she started Dexamethasone again and it as last time hit her hard. The worst part of treatment for Brenn seems to be being on the steroid....she is unable to control her emotions, becomes ultra sensitive, she is sleeping half the amount of time she normally does (which does not help her emotional stability), she is angry all the time.....the worst of the worst is she does not know why she acts/does what she does and this confuses her. This is part of her protocol to fight off the cancer, as a parent it is hard to watch and expect her to function in a normal environment...but this is what is saving her life and so this is what we must do. None the less we are so blessed to be home with two healthy children for the holidays.

Merry Christmas to all of you, thank you for your thoughts and prayers this holiday season.

Love the Smiths

So here it goes writing the blog again, it seems like it has been so long I don't know where to start. So we've returned to PG and for the first week things were really great. For the most part they still are, but the transition back to life is huge.

Interesting bits of news..... Joe (very good family friends of ours) shaved his head on Saturday in support of Brenn, this was very emotional for us. I will post a picture when I get one from Joe...stay tuned. The Canadian Blood services called this morning and if we were still in Vancouver Brenn would have been the Christmas blood drive campaign poster child, but as we are now residing in Prince George our family has been asked to speak at two formal events educating and encouraging others on the importance of donating and thanking long term donors for their blood support......how very exciting and scary at the same time as I do not like public speaking.....good thing my husband is proficient and not so uncomfortable with it. Last bit of exciting new is we met with make a wish again and the plans for Brenn's wish are coming along we will be going on the Disney Cruise in the spring and it's going to be absolutely fantastic...yeahhhhh!!!!

Brenn is doing very well, she is back to school full time and loving it. Samantha is in preschool three days a week and sort of enjoying it, it's more difficult for Samantha to leave me it seems. Sam never wants to be away from Scott or I and she never wants to leave the house, after 5 mins in the car she spends the rest of our trip out asking to go home.....crazy girl, we thought that she would miss the hustle and bustle of activity in Vancouver.....guess not. Our whole family got sick with in a few days of returning to PG, I have had a cold and throat infection, Brenn a cold (or side effect from a new chemo....not sure which one yet), Samantha got tonsillitis and now Scott seems to have a pretty serious cold with possible infection (trying to get him to the Dr.....lol)

The reality of having a child with a serious illness is setting in hard and fast now that were home and life doesn't seem so critical.....we were told by other parents and our social worker that once we got home the real processing would begin and the auto pilot would shut off. I believe this has begun......Scott and I live on the edge of keeping it together everyday. Managing our everyday lives with the constant worry about Brenn, her health, her mental and emotional wellbeing, Samantha and if we are giving her enough attention, setting boundaries for both girls as regular rules apply again, and taking care of each other in mean time....this life is hard, RMH isn't looking so bad right now.....lol. I know that we have only been home for two weeks and that every family returning home feels the same way I just wish that I could get through the day without feeling my eyes well up and over multiple times.

There is a reason that this has happened to our family and we trust that we are learning whatever it is that we need to learn from it, we know that we will come out the other side of this a stronger, happier, and healthier family, its just getting there that's the problem....lol.

Sorry it's been so long since our last post, this one will be short as well as we are all feeling under the weather. Brenn is adjusting well to life back in PG, she is in school full time and loving it. We will write more when we are all well. I hope this finds you all well. Take care