Feliz Cumpleaños a T

SO...Matthew's chemo is starting to affect him. He's a lot more nauseous, but he still hasn't gotten sick. He takes a lot more nauseous pills than he did last time. He can also pull his chest hair out really easily this week.

Today is Matthew's 17th birthday! During chemo today, Dr. Williams and his nurses Jodi, Sasha, Jessica, and Kate came into his room to sing to him and give him two movie tickets. The Phoenix Children's Clinic has such awesome staff. My mom and T love them.

Nick Rockwell came in to the clinic to give him a gift and spend time with him too. He got T books by Barney titled "The Playbook" and "The Bro Code." If you have seen How I Met Your Mother, then you will understand why these books are so hilarious. They are perfect for T because that is one of his favorite shows.

After dinner, we carved pumpkins as a family. I love carving pumpkins! We all gathered around our island and went to work. Of course though, this can't be just an innocent activity with my family. After we developed our designs and started actually carving, the "trash talk" began and it turned into a competition to see who would have the best pumpkin. Everything we do seems to turn into a race of some sort, but that makes everything fun.

I was using a really sharp knife to carve mine, and the ENTIRE TIME Matthew kept telling me that I shouldn't be using that knife because I don't have my tote and chip. That is a certificate you get in scouts to use knives. Cute and protective brother, right?...No! He just wanted to seem better than me because he has his. What he doesn't know, is that I have had extensive knife training for one of my past government jobs. (just kidding) But I did carve my pumpkin very well and without injury. Thanks a lot Matthew.

And Chad, I would like you to know that Hannah carved her entire pumpkin by herself and did not even threaten to lose interest. She got really into it and hers turned out really cute. I know, we were impressed too. (Hannah isn't huge into crafting. She'll think she is sometimes, start something, get bored after 10 minutes and leave it.)

Anyways, here are the fruits of our labor...

Hannah's says BOO! on one side, and has hands on the other:

Matthew's Hitler pumpkin, and my sinister one:

This picture was kind of an accident because the flash came on halfway through taking the picture, but I think it looks really cool:

When we finished those, Jessica, Angela and Heather came over to bring him their gifts. 

Happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you...yada yada yada. Make a wish and don't tell anyone:

Heather and Angela made him Dwight sweat pants and shirt with Angela's mom, Kim's vinyl machine. They are so funny and he loves them:

Jessica got him a Spiderman mask she got on her Mexican cruise (rough life) and a really cool cancer ribbon dog tag she made in her metals class:

I got him some more weapons for his very large armory he also likes to call his bedroom:

We ended our night by watching a recording dad took of Matthew when he was completely delirious from morphine in the hospital. Now that his pain and delirium is gone and his tumor is shrinking, that video is more hilarious than it was when my dad first recorded it. Perhaps I will post it to the blog, but I guess you'll just have to wait and see...