Monday October 1st, Happy Birthday Ingram!!!

Wow!!  Ingram is officially 4 years old now and Beau (our dog) is now a year old.  Ingram has been telling everyone that it's both of their birthdays today and it's just too cute.  Beau got a shave and a bath today at the groomers and Ingram said he almost looks like him and Daddy and G-Daddy and Pops and then he starts to go down his list a little more of all the guys who have shaved heads.  He told me it was too many to remember and started laughing.  We've been overwhelmed by all the love and affection that our whole family has been given since everything started and I should have know his birthday wouldn't be any different.  He even got a present in the mail from our sweet family in Mississippi!

Ingram has been playing with all his new toys from yesterday and had to wait soooo long to open his presents from the family today.  He kept asking all day long if it was time yet and I kept telling him he had to wait till after dinner.  Speaking of dinner, he picked out Huey's as his restaurant of choice for birthday and even choose to skip ice cream to get back to the house and shave another head!!!  Pete Smith came over to let Ingram shave his head; Kari was at home with the kids in bed already and we've know them for close to 14 years!  Pete also works at Vining Sparks and had been out of town on the days when we've shaved heads up there. 

These past few days have been very emotional with finishing chemo and celebrating Ingram's birthday.  Even in celebrating Ingram's birthday, we are still hurting for our two close friends that lost their boys due to cancer and won't be celebrating any more of their birthdays.  We've felt joy and happiness and sadness and guilt all at the same time and it's just such an emotional roller coaster.  Today we found out the Cole Christensen, one of our close friends from St. Jude, received heartbreaking news.  Cole went through Radiation at the same time as us and has been battling Anaplastic Ependymoma (our same tumor type) for the almost 2 and a half years and he's only 3 and a half.  They had found out one month ago that a new tumor had been found making it his fourth battle against this nasty cancer and today were told that it had grown at an alarming rate.  Cole is doing well currently, playing most of the time, and has no pain; they're choosing to spend all their time with family and friends at home.  Please keep the Christensen family in your prayers as they cherish their time with Cole and the rest of their family.

Peek-A-Boo! 
The Birthday Monster Sees You!

Beware...He's Got The Clippers Again!!

Ingram And Pete!
Ingram Named Him "Big B" And We Think It's Because There's A "Little B" In The Smith Family!

I've Posted This Before, But It's A Great Picture Of All Four Of The Boys.
Landan, Jayden, Ingram And Cole Played Together During And After Radiation.
Landan and Jayden Are In Heaven And Cole Is In The Middle Of His Fourth Battle.
Cancer Really Stinks.

Happy Birthday Ingram!
You Are Our Hero!
We Love You!