Author Archives: teamfricke

He’s Three!

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Today Cutler turns three years old and what an amazing ride it has been to get here.  We are truly blessed to have a boy with such a heart to fight through everything he has been through and to have so many family members, friends, and friends of friends that have graciously prayed so diligently for him.  Thanks to the power of prayer and some incredible doctors, we are in San Antonio for spring break with some awesome friends (pictures and stories to follow in time) where we will celebrate Cutler’s third birthday with a visit to the Alamo.  Come to think of it, what an appropriate place to visit with someone who fought for their life the way Cutler did.  Only difference is that Cutler won.

Below is a photo of the brothers from today at Sea World.

Champions

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The last several days have been spent spinning and winning by the boys and my parents.  For Christmas Mason got a healthy supply of Beyblades.  Essentially they are tops that you spin in an “arena” and battle against the others.  Last one standing is the winner.  During our visit to St. Louis for Christmas it proved to be a big hit amongst the family and grandma and grandpa.  Since then Mason has moved on to other items of interest until the past week which timed nicely with the arrival of my parents to join in the fun.  They literally sat and spun for hours on end yesterday.  Grandpa was “nice” enough to teach them the proper art of trash talking and grandma gave Mason a “science lesson” on friction that she apparently learned from a science fair a couple weeks ago.  Here is a picture of the champions bladers after a long hard fought battle.

Not Right

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I knew it was only a matter of time given the time that my parents and Melanie’s mom spend together in our house, but I never thought they would get caught on camera.  Unfortunately for Mason, he was the one to capture it.  I fear he will never be the same after witnessing such a horrible occurrence.  To make matters worse, Betty sat next to my dad at lunch today relegating my mom to the booth with the kids and then bought him a cookie and didn’t offer one for mom.  I am hoping that years of therapy will help us get through this.

Another Clean Bill of Health

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Yesterday morning was Cutler’s quarterly appointment for blood work and I am very happy to say that he continues to look great.  We were fortunate to see all of the doctors minus Dr Lenarsky and Cutler was very happy to give them all hugs and impress them with how big he has gotten and how smart and charming he has become, obviously learning from me.  Even more impressive was that he didn’t flinch when he was poked to give blood.  The only time during the appointment that he fussed was when he got tired of waiting for the blood pressure machine to finish.

Grandma Lewis’ 90th Birthday

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Despite Grandma Lewis’ deteriorating condition she sat up strong and enjoyed her 90th birthday and was alert and aware of everyone’s love.  I only wish I could have been there for it.  Despite eating seldom she continues to hang in there.  Below is a picture of her proudly holding her roses given to her by my other amazing 90-year-old Grandma Fricke.

Where’s Cutler?

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Cutler’s latest fascination, when playing outside, is to crawl into the shrubs.  Not sure exactly why, especially considering the scratches he gets from his ventures, but on this particular day he loved poking his head out to “surprise” us.

JBeishir Productions Presents…

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I was just rooting through my old emails and came across this video that my wonderful and talented niece, Jordan, put together of the kids dancing at my parents’ house while the adults were having a few beverages at the hockey game during our Christmas visit.

Jared Has Pneumonia

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Jared started his first round of chemo on the 14th and it has been a battle for him.  Aside from the tough side effects he now has pneumonia and is taking antibiotics for them.  This is really tough considering he is only working with one lung right now.  After this round of chemo he has another to do and then will head back to Houston for the next plan of action, which will most likely be a round of proton radiation therapy.  Despite the difficulties he remains strong, optimistic, and most importantly his faith is impenetrable.  Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Poop Goes In The Potty

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As Cutler nears his 3rd birthday we have been pushing pretty hard towards getting him out of diapers.  Over the past two weeks he has done great when it comes to number 1.  Unfortunately we haven’t been so lucky with the poop going in the potty…that is until last Thursday night!  We were out to dinner and all of a sudden he said he had to go.  After fighting me to get off the potty for what felt like eternity the deuce was dropped and all was right in Cutler’s world.  He has also successfully repeated the action at least once at school so hopefully we are on the path to a diaper free world.

I just found the video above and thought the song was great.  May have to start singing it to Cutler.