No News is Good News

` Clay and his best buddy Gabe.
Lily and her friend Sophia.

Planking!!!

Jake, Jacob and Cole at Clays birthday party.

Everyone at Clays birthday party.

Clays first day of school. December 2, 2011

Candlelighters Christmas party.

I cant believe it has been since October since I posted on Clays blog. I'm so sorry. Life has become normal again so we are a little boring I guess.

We, as in we I mean Clay. We hit some major milestones since I posted last.

I'm going to try and chronicle the last 3 months so I hope I don't ramble on.

November was filled with family. Tiff, Dave and the girls came here for Thanksgiving and we had a blast. The best part of November was the CLAY WENT BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!

Yep it is in all caps because it was freakn amazing. He was so excited to go back and be a kid again. He has had some struggles but nothing like I was expecting. The routine has been nice for him and he has been so much more social. He doesnt like homework but is pretty good about doing it. He hates math. I think the multiplication facts have fallen out of his head. I have noticed there is a little bit of "chemo brain" going on and he struggles retaining info. I hope that with time and patience that will go away and he will catch back up. I am looking into some tutoring this spring and through the summer to help catch up and fill in some holes that are missing from 5th grade. The school has been flexible and very kind to him. Its nice to have that bit of comfort when he goes to school. He and Cole walk to and from school almost everyday.

December brought kindness, service, secret Santa and parties.

We were blessed this year with a Secret 12 days of Christmas Santa. It ended up being Candlelighters. We love them and plan on sponsoring a family next year. It will be nice to pay back our Christmas of 2010. We also had our annual Candlelighters Christmas party complete with Santa, Miss Nevada and Build a Bear. We have made some great friends through Candlelighters and its nice to catch up with them from time to time.

Christmas was nice and relaxing at our house. We had no guests, family or friends over. The kids are all the age where there presents are more expensive so they get less of them. Shopping was even easier this year. A couple I pods and a Kindle and we were set. The boys also got parts to their cars and guns and Lil got girls stuff and a pair of super cute boots. It was nice to have our family together. Last year we were worried about making Christmas the best one because we were worried Clay wasn't going to be with us for another year. My oh My what a year can do to you. This year we were able to reflect on the last year and know that it has been a roller coaster but was well worth it.

We capped off the year with Cole going to the New Years Eve youth dance. We spent the night playing games and watching the ball drop. Cole came home a little after midnight.

We are now to January and I have been rambling. But we are almost done so just stick with me....

Clays birthday was this last weekend. He turned 12. Holy Cow. 12 is such a powerful age. As a boy in the LDS church you get the priesthood and can leave primary. I tried to hold it together on Sunday as they brought Clay to the stand and Brother Sampson expressed his love for Clay and the power he had over this cancer. He talked about how Clay can now move on and have a successful life and serve a mission. After Sacrament Tad was able to give him a blessing of the priesthood. Grandad and Grandma Nicki were able to come visit and help give Clay the priesthood, they only have 2 active boys in the church and they wanted to make to this birthday.

For Clays birthday party we went to the Las Vegas Wranglers hockey game. Thanks to Brad M for hooking us up with a suit and tickets. It was so much fun to get all the boys together and let them watch and hang out. Clay has a good group of mischievous friends. They are all so much alike. It is fun to see Clay in his element of friends. He is always so grumpy and moody at home, it was nice to actually see him laugh and have fun. His friends are all so happy to have him back and healthy.

I am so grateful that Clay made it to 12. There are times that I could kiss him foe being so sweet and loving and other times I could strangle his grumpy self. I think all of us moms feel the same way. He has had a rough year and deserves a little leeway.

He has been playing soccer again and I love to watch him go. His coach was impressed with his endurance and speed. His pe teacher says the same thing. I'm glad that chemo didn't effect his lungs and that he has been super healthy. He has been able to build up a pretty good immune system and can handle most anything now

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers and thoughts this last year and a half.

Love to all, Tab

Halloween Fun

Tad and Dean dressed up

Cole is the ShuffleBot from LMFAO, Lil is Glow stick girl and Clay is a scary clown

Believe in Tomorrow group at the PBR

Flint the clown stopping by to say Hi.

That is called a scorpion.

They hit the motherload at the Candle lighters trick or treating.

The killer clown killing with cotton candy.

We had so much fun this Halloween season. It was full of fun and activities.

Our celebrations started on the Thursday before with a trick of treat festival with Candle lighters. the kids look forward to it every year. The candy haul is always overwhelming. This year WalMart donated 7 pallets of candy for the trick or treating. Cole's favorite part was the airbrush tattoo. there was a cute high school girl involved.

Next we were off to the PBR with Believe in Tomorrow. We had the most amazing time. We had a blast. We had great seats and met a super nice family whose daughter has cancer, she is 14. Cole's favorite part was the Rock Star girl. Clay and Lil loved the bulls and the riders. Thank you so much to Candle lighters for thinking of us for these very expensive and fun tickets and to Believe in Tomorrow for giving us this opportunity.

Saturday Lily had a couple games and then the parties begin. Cole had a party with friends and Lily had one too. Cole wanted to go as the ShuffleBot this year so we made his costume. Lily went as glow stick girl and Clay was a scary clown. We had so much fun at Lily's party with her softball team. Cole had fun too. Its hard to think I have a kid old enough to go to parties.

Monday was okay. Halloween this year was kind of weird. It was a little boring. The kids all went in different directions. I didn't see Lily for several hours. We also had a low count in kids walking around. We made it fun though. Clay hid in the bushes and jumped out at kids to scare them. That was the funnest part, watching him scare the crap out of high school kids trying to steal our candy. He would leave the bucket out and would hide then when they tried to take alot out of the bucket he would chase them away with his fake knife and clown mask. It was awesome, he also get out alot of built up aggression. I was able to look back at the year and see the difference from one year to the next. Last Halloween Clay had a hard time walking and only hit a couple houses and this year he had fun running around. Its been a great year.

All in all Halloween was fun. The kids all have too much candy and enjoyed themselves.

Love, Tab

Normalcy is Good, Lily is Better

Go Champions!!

Do you see that hit. She hit the crap out of the ball on Saturday.

This is how we get it all in. We change at the fields to make it on time to cheer. I thought this picture was classic, a perfect mix of Lily. She is a girly girl and a tomboy.

The last couple of weeks have been mellow. That is a good thing. When I say mellow I mean Shurtleff mellow. Very little dr appointments, little meds and no illness. Clay is doing great and will continue to get better and better every day.

This post is all about Lily. She has us all over the place. She is in full swing of softball and her team is so amazing. They are such good girls and the parents are just as amazing. They had a win on Saturday and Lil helped, she went 3 for 3 at bat and had 5 RBIs. The team won 12-2. She is doing so well and is having fun in the process.

Lil also made the cheer team for the school. They have a football team the girls cheer for. She makes it to as many games as she can but they interfere with softball. its nice for Lily to do something girly.

We love Lil and are so proud of all the things she can do and still keep her grades up.

Love Tab

Prayers for Jacob

Clay and I met this amazing family in Utah when we were inpatient. The Watson's are so nice. They have a Jacob who was diagnosed with Leukemia and had a bone marrow transplant from the coolest little boy I have ever met, his 3 year old brother.

Anyway, Jacob has had some severe side effects from the Chemo. He has developed Pulmonary Fibrosis. He also has a collapsed lung. The docs at PCMC say this is a first for them. Not the collapsed lung but the Pulmonary Fibrosis. They are developing a plan of action but the family is devastated. This is what I feared with Clay, the chemo has so many horrible side effects. It kills me that the thing that can help our kids get better can also kill them with the side effects. We (Clay) is so blessed to have come away with very little side effects and very little issues. Knock on wood. Everyone go now and knock on the nearest piece of wood. K welcome back. haha. Back to the topic. We have been so fortunate to have the bestest prayers ever. We have groups all over the country who all pray to different Gods. I think that the love and support form our friends is what helped us get through the trauma and fear of cancer and bmt. You guys are all solid strong powerful people. I love you all so much. thanks for your prayers for my sweet, amazing, moody, grumpy stubborn outstanding boy.

So tonight and for a while our friend Jacob needs your love and support. Please pray for him and the whole Watson family.

Love to all,

Tabby and Clay

Shurtleffs in pictures

I have so many pictures to share I thought they could use their own posting....Here ya go!!!!

Clay loved swimming in St George. Notice the amount of hair. He is almost ready for a hair cut.

Lily drowning Cole. Isn't sibling rivalry the best?


Cole pitching for his fall team. He had fun this season.

The last trip to Utah we visited Heber City Railroad. Clay is saving the helpless girls from the train. An evil boy tied them up.

We could not keep Clay off the top of the fragile falling apart rail cars. Each and everyone he climbed to the top.

Lily had a photo shoot with a dear friend of mine. She has taken a bunch of pictures for our family. I recommend her to everyone. She is awesome!!!
www.reneethephotographer.wordpress.com

Shes SAFE. First game of the season. She loves loves loves her team.

Aunt Dani ran the St George marathon last weekend. She is amazing and I look up to her. Thanks for giving us a reason to get away for the weekend.
Lily loves her Aunt Dani!!!

Clay is still being a dare devil. Sshh, don't tell his doctors.

Cole and Alex. Cousins are the greatest. We love Alex and are so proud of how much he has grown up in the last year or so.

Septemebr and October doings

Hi there family and friends. We have missed you so much. Just to bring everyone up to date health wise, we are all fine. You know the old saying no news is good news, well, we are there and we love every minute of it!!!!

Here is an update on each kiddo and also how Clay is feeling.

Cole is doing good. He is doing very well keeping his grades up this year. He isn't straight As but he isn't missing any work. He has become excited for basketball this fall. He has been staying after school and playing with the basketball coach. tryouts will be sometime in November. In order to be on a school team he must maintain a C avg. He is bound and determined to do that. He finished his fall season of baseball and had a blast with the team. He chose not to do another fall league so he could play basketball at the YMCA. My thought is any 14 year old who is over 6 feet tall should play basketball.

Lily is, ugh, well Lily. She is having a blast with her softball team, she returned to the Angelz. She has been playing really well and hit a solid double tonight. Lil is also cheer leading for the elementary school. So far she is having fun and likes being with the girls. Her grades are great as usual. If she focuses she can do amazing work. We love her and she makes me crazy!!! I wouldn't want her any other way.

Clay is getting back to a normal life, well as normal as Shurtleff life is. He plays outside every night and is getting some school work done online. He has been released back to school in January, I think he might be counting down the days. His health is really good right now (knock on wood). He had a cold a couple weeks ago but his body did what it was supposed to do and he is all better now. It was a little worrisome at first but after talking to the all knowing Dr B he said it was a good thing because we were able to watch his body fight the cold in his blood work. Clay still has to wear a mask indoors but is able to start going to restaurants and movies and places like that. it has been nice to let go of the reigns a little.

Tad and I are a nutz as always. Tad is coaching Lily's softball team and just finished Cole's baseball team. He and I are both working like crazy and managing all the kids schedules.

I am planning on flying up for Clays dr appt next week. I will be doped up on anti nausea meds and have the motion sickness patch on my ear. Not looking forward to it, but we only have until March to do this, so we can keep it up for a couple more months.

Clays appt is next week, like I just said, so as soon as I can I will post how well he is doing after the docs tell me how amazing he is and what a stud my boy is.

Love to all,

Tab

Candlelighters 5K

Our team. Kickn it for Clay.

My heros. Childhood Cancer Survivors.

No matter how much she grows up, there is always going to be Elmo.

Laura's fam came to watch. Thanks Erin and Pat.

Clay and Lily are walking together. Don't tell them but they actually got along on the walk.

Clay took pics with a bunch of characters

All the Ladies rockn their bright green.

The boys and Heather rockn the bright green. Get this, Heather ran the 5K and then left to go coach Lily's softball team. She is a stud.

Today was such a great day. It is an honor to be a part of such a great program. Candle lighters has been there from the beginning of Clays diagnosis. Candlelighters helped Tad get back and forth from Utah by giving us gas cards. Today was the 21st Annual Candlelighters 5K. We were able to create a team for Clay, there were 12 walkers/runners. We had 3 competitive runners who did our team proud. They all finished below their goal times and Laura even made a personal record. A big thanks goes out to all our team members. It was our 5, Laura, Michelle, Coach Heather, Ikiaka and Kelly's family. We also had numerous donors of money who didn't or couldn't run. Unfortunately we never made contact with Kelly's family. There were so many people there and we got lost in the crowd. I am so glad she made it and I feel bad I was never able to tell her that in person. So Thanks Kelly!!!!

The host today said there were over 2,400 runners and they raised over 100,000.00. Can you believe that? The money raised helps to funds the activities that all the kids can go to, as well as help families pay for their medical bills, or gas cards, or perscription reimbursement. There are so many wonderful things that Candlelighters does for the childhood cancer community. I am just in awe of all the families who will benefit from this fundraiser. There was one little girl, no more than 7 years old, who raised as a team over 10,000.00, she alone did several Alex's Lemonade stands and raised over 6,000.00. That girl is so neat. I was able to meet her and she was so cute and humble.

During the awards ceremony there was a moment of silence for all the kids that were lost this year. I couldn't help it, I shed a tear. I was looking at so many teams who were walking on honor of a lost kid. It breaks my heart to know that every day 7 kids die from cancer. Every day I am grateful we are not one of those 7.

Anyway, it was such a fun day. Clay has come along way in a year. He has been diagnosed and survived cancer. Today it was nice to be normal, we were outside so no masks, Clay was running and playing like normal, Tad and I were hanging out with friends. Everything was just normal. Normal is good so we are good.

Thanks to Candlelighters, our team and our donors,

Tab and Clay