Christmas morning....still exciting at 18, 16 and 13 years old!
Of course, opening presents is a chore when your good hand is in a cast. Notice that even while cast, the right hand is trying to "cheat."
Bandit and Penny even got a present from Santa....and they are trying to help unwrap the box. (They could smell the dog biscuits)
A favorite gift from Meghan to Cameron: A burton ski hat to match his jacket. If Cameron could talk Brianna into going snowboarding, he'd go right now!

Cameron's 18th Birthday dinner: Monster hamburgers at Grovers.....with Tom (because he is technically the oldest brother in this family--by 6 months!)
A sibling takedown.....That's what happens when she takes a bite of his food!
Christmas Eve with the cousins: A little whipped cream on the face turns into a food fight. (Left to right: Brianna, Grandpa Ralph, Emma, Mally and Meghan)
Trying to calm down the cousins in preparation for Santa's visit tonight. Meghan and Brianna with Austin and Sophie
BYU Mens Basketball came to Buffalo to play the UB Bulls. 161 of us went to cheer them on. Yes Cameron and Tom were with us, but they negotiated courtside seats while we were in the 300 section. BYU won, of course!

Early Christmas for Meghan. I think not!

Four days before Christmas, and Dr Ferrick gives Meghan a full arm cast on her functioning arm.

Spaulding Rehab Hospital warned us that this might happen: Meghan's right hand has become so dominant that the left hand isn't pulling it's weight. The automatic arm response between the brain and the left arm has never been re-established. So Mark aka "The Torturer" suggested that we remove the ability to use the right arm by casting it. Now Leftie is going to have to do everything that Meghan needs done. We pray that this will work, Meghan desperately wants two functioning hands again......but it's going to be very frustrating to only have the use of a 25% functioning hand for the next 4 weeks.

Early Christmas for Brianna

Brianna and Andrew exchange gifts early. He just can't figure out why she gave him a tiny canister of quarters!
Andrew, it looks as if jewelry was a winner!
Brianna can't stand to wait while Andrew meticulously unwraps his present. Who is more excited?
Brianna told Andrew that there were 251 parts to his present. Is he actually counting?

Family Pictures

They really are best friends. She is going to be lost without him when he leaves for college next year.
Cameron and Ralph's Porsche!
Cameron and Jeff's Camero.
Brianna and her attitude.

Meghan, and her grace

Brianna and her style.

National Honor Society

Congratulations to Brianna. She was one of 40 students admitted into the National Honor Society for 2010. Even with all this year's stress , she still managed to keep her grades up. We are proud of her!
Brianna asked my friend Bonnie, who owns a T-shirt printing business, to make a shirt to support Andrew at his wrestling tournaments. Bonnie let Brianna design the shirt, front and back.

Pet Antics

Bandit pulls the brussels sprouts out of my vegetable bag. Notice NO ONE in the family stops him from munching: (They would have if it had been chocolate!)
As Stephan blows the air out of the pool pipes, Bandit tries to bite the bubbling water.
Then Bandit and Penny both just bark at the water. We don't think Penny has a clue what is going on, she's just barking to follow Bandit's lead.
Later, Bandit manages to pilfer an apple. Did we name this dog appropriately?

Service to Others

We had the opportunity to serve someone else by doing a walk, "Miles for Megan": A different Megan but still fighting the same dreaded condition of CANCER.Meghan and Riley, & Brianna and Andrew went with Margie to deliver a Make-A-Wish to a little boy, Chase, who was born without a cerebellum. His wish was to have a therapy room in his house. Andrew did all the heavy lifting, while the girls watched Chase squeal with joy with his new therapy equipment.
Mally, always a fixture in Meghan's life. A best friend who doesn't quit when things get tough. We all need a Mallory in our life!

Halloween

The weather begins to turn cooler, and we move into the basement for a family game of "Just Dance."

For Halloween, Meghan goes trick or treating as a BYU Football Player.

Brianna and Andrew, her boyfriend, pose for a photo at the Halloween Dinner

You're on Candid Camera, Andrew!

Back to School

Do we know what we are letting ourselves in for: Meghan's first day back to school in 9 months!

August Days

Speech therapy involves electrical stimulation to weak muscles
Speech therapy also requires drinking juice through a challenging straw to increase the strength of the tongue and cheek muscles
We had the Clarence Girls Swim Team over here to celebrate Shayna's 16th birthday

A trip to the New York State Fair in Syracuse, finds Cameron ordering a cheeseburger at Dinosaur's BBQ

How did we get so lucky to see Mitchell Musso perform his latest music. Meghan enjoyed the show, the rest of us managed to survive, barely!

Brianna's 16 Birthday

For Brianna's 16th birthday, we invited 15 of her closest friends for an evening of swimming and games.

The favorite game was the frozen T-shirt game. A shirt had been frozen into a block and it was a race between teams to see who could un-freeze their shirt first, and get it on a team member. Hands are desperately trying to melt the ice from the shirt, but fingers can't take the cold for long......

Lillie and Maggie were the 'lucky" wearers of the frozen T-shirt

Being good team-mates, Brianna, Austin, David and Corrine try to warm up Maggie as she wears the frozen shirt!

Later, the boys move to the basement for a game of darts.

While the girls challenge each other to "Just Dance" on the Wii

End of summer plans

Meghan hasn't had much of a summer, but we squeeze in a few additional activities:

Of course, there's the trip to the Buffalo Zoo, with Riley (And Mason, Austin, Jake, KC and Nick)

And we do OT 3 times a week. Meghan loves Mrs Biondi coming, as she always has a new game--such as "Pick up Monkeys"
Science is pretty interesting with Mrs Wehrelin, especially when they do density experiments.
And of course, we must celebrate our 13th birthday. We did a video scavenger hunt that was awesome. Meghan has wonderful friends. Bottom Row: Mally, Meghan, Riley. Top Row: Jenn, Morgan, Amber, JennaLee and Lauren.
And what is a birthday without Mom's famous ice cream cake? (Actually, Brianna is the designer of the cake....and it's a winner.