Olivia’s birthday is January 21st so instead of a party and gifts she wanted to go to the beach and relax with her cousin Whittney who is just 4 days younger! They have always shared their celebrations and this year is no different! We decided to take advantage of an extra day off of school to take a direct flight to Florida for a long weekend! Some may think it’s extreme but our parenting decisions have definitely changed over the last nearly 4 years during Olivia’s journey!

Olivia still continues to have knee and foot pain for the last 2 weeks since deciding to practice with the high school tennis team! As much as she’d love the pain to go away she’s been a trooper and Whittney and Alecia have been patient with her situation! This has been a very laid back, schedule free trip where we’ve found ourselves having appetizers at midnight the evening we arrived, traveling 40 minutes in the mustang convertible we rented to find the perfect beach, watching the incredible sunset and running in to a cute farmer’s market this morning!

Although Olivia has to stay out of the sun because of what chemo and radiation has done to her body, she is still as happy as ever looking at the beach with her sun protective clothes on, under an umbrella!

We hope you take every moment to Liv it Up with your kids whether it’s time at the park, coloring with them or getting away for a long weekend! Our eyes have been opened at how precious life is and how fortunate we are to be healthy!

Olivia is finishing up her first semester as a high school sophomore and came home with her ceramic masterpieces today! This is the first full semester in over 3 years that Olivia has went to school more days than doctors appointments of being home sick! To top it off she’s finishing with all A’s (assuming her finals go as well as the school year)! Olivia participates in 3 philanthropy groups through school, 4-H, piano lessons, and she’s trying tennis this year! Although the first week of tennis conditioning had her taking ibuprofen for the pain in her knees (damage caused by chemo) and increasing her neuropathy meds so she can sleep through the night without shooting pain down her legs, Olivia won’t give anything less than 100%! She absolutely hates that she can’t keep up physically with her peers but we remind her of the amazing improvement in her stamina over that last several months!

We are so thankful for Olivia’s improvements and for the near completion of her first semester attending high school! Please continue to pray for all of our friends and their family that continue to fight the awful disease cancer! We hate seeing others go through it as much as we hated going through it ourselves! Please God give us a cure!