New Jokes!!

I have a bunch of jokes for you all tonight:

1. Where does a sailor go when his sail gets a hole in it?

To the Wholesale Store!

2. Why is a football stadium always cold?

Because it full of fans.

3. What helps ghosts win games?

Their team spirit.

4. How does an octopus go out onto the baseball diamond?

Well armed.

5. What happened when Santa took boxing lessons?

He decked the halls!


Okay now that you've had a good laugh -
NO MORE CHEMO - for now. Last night was the last dose for this round.

Have a good night!

Love ya,
Lil'Ben

AWESOME SAINTS GAME!!

They didn't win and Drew Brees didn't break the passing record but I thought it was totally awesome! Warm-ups and the coin toss was great. I'm sure most of you could not see me, I was a little short compared to the rest of the guys. But my buddy Drew Brees held my hand and introduced me to all the players out there. I got some autographs, and I picked out a play for Coach Sean Payton - I'm sure it was one of the ones that they scored off of! Everyone was soo awesome. I saw Cameron Alfred's Dad and he gave me a game ball from last week! Cameron - your dad has the COOLEST job!!! My brother Shaun had a great time too - he didn't get to go on the field, I think the football players were afraid of him.

Can't believe what a cool day this was, Thank you to all that made it possible. I love ya!

Lil'Ben

Great Christmas

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. I sure did. I got lots of great presents but most importantly I had a great day with my family. Shaun and I played for hours with all our new toys. And cruised the neighborhood looking for chicks. Do you like my new wheels?

Just a few more days of Chemo and radiation!

And guess what ... This Sunday I get to be a Junior Captain at the Saints game this Sunday!!! I get to hang out with the guys before the game while they warm up and then I get to go on the field with the players for the coin toss. My favorite player Drew Brees might even caring me out on to the field - how cool is that? When my mom first told me I was a little scared cause I thought I had to play in the game and they are a little bigger then me- but mom said I don't have to play unless ALOT of players get injured, like all of them. So be sure to watch the game and look for me during the coin toss! And if your at the game cheer loud I'll wave at you.

Have a great day

Lil'Ben

Merry Christmas Eve

Hello All

I quick note before I go to bed...Santa is coming soon! I went to mass tonight and then ate yummy food at my Aunt Steph and Uncle Henry's House. Had a close call, almost had to go to the hospital tonight. I had a fever 100.1 but luckily they give you until 100.5 before you have to go to get admitted. We talked to the doc and he said we could take a little Tylenol (usually a big nono!)

Mom was not excited about the possibility of Christmas in the hospital! She was worried Santa would not no where to take her presents!

Anyway better get to bed before the big guy passes me by. Remember I love you all. Have a great Christmas and remember to be nice to your loved ones even when they annoy you!

Love ya
Lil'Ben

Late Night Partying

Sorry no post yesterday I didn't get home till after 11pm. I was out late partying with my buddies at City Park Christmas in the Oaks. Lots of kids from my school met up for a pizza party and to ride the "party school bus" with Mr. Art to City Park. We rode trucks, airplanes, and the carousel; played on a battleship, pirate ship, and got swallowed by a whale. We stood in line for a while but the train broke down so my grandma says she is gonna take me and Shaun back to ride it another day.

Went to radiation today. Only 6 more days to go!

ben

Great Clinic Day!!

All your good wishes must have worked because I had a GREAT clinic day today. My blood counts were good today, so good in fact that I don't even have to go to clinic next week !!!!!!!! And then the next week I only need to get blood counts I don't need to see the doc -much faster those days. I did an antibiotic nebulizing treatment just as a precaution today so clinic took a while but it wasn't as long as some kids have to be their so i am lucky. I didn't cry at all for my blood draw today. My mom was super proud of me because usually I scream in her ear the whole time - but she doesn't mind.

My Aunt MegO left today so I am going to miss her a lot, but she said she had to go home to make sure that crazy Uncle Mikey wasn't growing his mustache back!!

Tomorrow I am going to see my cousin Olivia is a school program. I am very excited because I hear she is really good.

I am excited for Christmas, Santa sure is going to be busy this year because I know how good you all have been. I went to see him yesterday and told him how good you all have been to me so expect extra presents this year!!

Love you
Lil'Ben

A Harley for Christmas!!!

Wow it has been a couple of really busy days.

Check out the Harley that I got for Christmas. Not really, Mr. Wyatt just let me sit on his and offered to take me for a ride.

Thanks to all of my friends that came to the party at Mr. James' bar Saturday and my dad's hotel today. I love all of my new toys and I can't wait to start playing with them.

I am kind of sad tonight, I have to do blood work again at clinic tomorrow, I hate needles. I hope my blood is so good this week that I don't have to do it again next week.

Love you all
Lil'Ben

Busy Days

Well its been a busy couple of days. Yesterday I went to treatment and then spent the rest of the day at school. I had a great time there and got a huge surprise! My teachers gave me a very cool firetruck jungle gym! They are way to good to me. I love them lots and its not because they buy me cool stuff! And a special thanks to Mr T.J. and his buddy who lifted the 800lb "toy" over the fence because it was to big to fit through the gate, mommy, Mego, Ms. Kim and Mr. Tom helped too!

Then today my good friend Mr. James had a big party at his bar so everyone who hasn't seen me lately could come and say high, eat good food and hang out. Ms Kelly and all my friends at my mom's work did a great job organizing it and Pizza Joe & Mr. Ben (not my dad) worked the grill! It was so yummy and I saw a lot of great friends.

Thank you all, I love you!!
Lil' Ben

Snow Day

Here is the joke of the day:

Why does the potato chip talk?
Because it has a mouth

(That is a Ben original)

The snow was fun, I hope it snows again tomorrow. I went to school today and had a snowball fight with all my friends.

I went to daddy's work and had chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies- they were yuuummmy!

ben

Beads of Courage

What a fun day today. Ben got his Beads of Courage. Its a program where they give kids a bead to represent each event they go through. The collection of their beads tells the story of their fight with cancer, each kids strand of beads is unique to them and there fight. Ben got his strand today that reflects all the things he has been through so far, he will continue to get beads to add to his necklace with each event. Each event has a different color bead. He gets blue beads for going to clinic, black beads are for needle sticks (blood draws, IVs, etc) he gets glowing the dark beads for radiation, yellow beads for nights spent in the hospital. Ben has over 50 beads now. Ben was very excited to get his beads today and loves telling people all about them. He took them to school today to show his class.



Ben's Joke of the Day:

Why did the alien forget his flying saucer?

Because he left it on Mars.

School Day

The radiation machine was broken today so I got to go to school all day today!! They got it fixed late in the afternoon so I still got my treatment, my puffy checks are going down so my mask wasn't so tight today, and I got in trouble for dancing again on the treatment table. Those ladies laugh at me all the time because they hear me singing and wiggling my feet to the great tunes I listen to during treatment..."Sweat home Alabama" and Kid Rock's "All summer long" usually!

Here are a few new pictures from my great party last week. My two special ladies...my girlfriend Brandy and my fabulous teacher Ms Jessica!

School was so great today. I did reading class with Ms Rita and it was great. I forgot how crazy Tanner is, he sure made my mom laugh today!!

I hope to be done with all my doctors appointments early tomorrow so I can go back to school again.

Hey guess what I am off more of my meds - all I take now is my chemo and my nausea meds before my chemo!!

Talk to you all later

Lil'Ben

Birthday Weekend!!

What a good birthday weekend we had here! Movie night with my cousins and my friend Patrick was great. And I ate a giant corn dog at the Orange Festival it was so awesome. Lots of fun games and rides.

We had our pizza eating contest!! And guess what - I won! Aunt Mego went down.

I miss all my friends at school, so I am going to try and go to school this week. Thank you for my messages. I have a few new jokes for you all I hope you like them...

So the harbor master says to the boy fishing on the peer, " There's no fishing allowed here" and the boy says, "I'm not fishing I'm teaching my pet worm to swim.

Why does the elephant where tennis shoes?
So he can play tennis.

Why does the golfer where 2 pairs of pants?
In case he gets a hole in 1.

love ya- B

BEN IS 5!!!!!

WOW!!!! What a party. A SWAT "tank", Fire Truck, Zoo Animals, great food, face painting, clowns, and best of all MY FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe what an awesome 5th Birthday I had. And guess what .......

I'm going to Disney World!!! I can't believe it. I wish all my buddies at my party today could go with me!

Thank You !!!!! Thank You !!!!!! Thank You!!!!!!

Okay my Mom wants to write stuff now - I Love you all

Lil' Ben

Hello All

What an amazing community we have been so blessed to become a part of. Not many people say Thank God for Katrina!! But I do. Because it brought us to Brighter Horizon's, Belle Chase, and a community of so many wonderful people who we love and who love us! I want to take a few minutes to say thank you to some very special people ....

Melanie, Jessica and ALL the amazing teachers at Brighter Horizon's. I can't begin to tell you how special you all are to my family. My boys have always loved coming to school, I always enjoy my afternoon chats with all the teachers when I come to pick them up. I don't think most parents "hang out" when they come to pick their kids up - but I do and I see a lot of other parents there too - and its not because we like getting mulch in shoes - its because you all are so awesome and we are privileged that you are our children's caretakers and our friends!

To the Brighter Horizon's Parents - some of you we know and some of you we just met today. We thank you for all your love, support, and prayers. I have been on several field trips with your kids and they are truly wonderful - partially because they go to Brighter Horizons and have awesome teachers, but mostly because you are awesome parents. Hug them everyday, laugh at their crazy antics and enjoy every minute. We want you to know that we will spend our lives trying to pay forward the generosity and love you have shown our family.

To our Marriott Family - Thank you for your support! The flexibility you have given to Ben has been amazing we are enjoying our family time everyday, and we know how many people are working so hard to make that happen.

To our Audubon Family - you all are so amazing. I know how hard you all work and I know how short staffed you are right now. I miss seeing you all everyday, I enjoy your visits, emails and phone calls more than you know. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all you do!

To our friends, and our friends friends, and the people we don't even know - thank you for the meals, the cards, and most of all your PRAYERS!

To our family - we may not say it enough but We Love You All!!! Thank you for your support, and your time. You made us who we are and you must have done a great job because we must have turned out pretty good to have this many people love us and our kids as much as they do.

I have always believed in the power of paying it forward. And you all have given us quite a challenge. We will not disappoint.

We love you all

Erin and Ben

Good check up

Clinic went well today it was quicker than last week and our blood work was so good we don't need to draw blood next week -YEAH!!!!!!! Ben has an infection in his mouth, expected with all the meds he is on, so he'll start antibiotics - yes more meds! Only three more days of steroids - which is good because our radiation mask barely fits over those puffy cheeks. But all in all good news today.

Here are the pictures from yesterday at school! Those are some of the best smiles we have seen in weeks. Big thank you to cousin Blake for freeing them from my email - can't wait to see you guys this weekend.


Ben is very excited about his birthday tomorrow. I'm sure we will have great pictures and maybe a video clip to share with you all tomorrow.

Love you all

Erin

Back to School

What a day we had today!!! Ben had planned on going into school for lunch and a movie - after all it was corn-dog day! But this morning when he woke up Ben said he wanted to go to school for the whole day. I explained he still had to go to treatment so we compromised - we went to school first thing and he had breakfast there then we went to radiation. I was sure after treatment he would want to go home and rest for a while but he said no - he wanted to go back to school. So I took him to school, I figured we would stay about 30 minutes and then he would need to go home. We arrived at 10 am and left today at 3:45 !! Yes he did a full day at school. I sat out front and rocked in the rocking chair and tried to stay out of the whirl wind of activity that surrounds Brighter Horizons - after all it was Sam's Club shopping day!!

Ben snacked with his class, did puzzle games with the class, colored with the class and played the freeze game with the class (he is really good at freezing), then of course he ate corn dogs with the class and then it was movie time. When it was time for the playground Ben went out and sat in the sun. Not a lot of running around for him today. But what a change - he has spent the last several days sleeping or laying down for roughly 90% of the day and today it was like he decided he was not going to be sick anymore - which is very cool with me!

We had a great day today, tomorrow is clinic so probably not going to be a great day but we have all kinds of toys and games packed for the very long expected clinic day.

We'll post some great pictures from today as soon as I can figure out how to get them out of my email -they are trapped!!

Love you all

Erin

Messages from the boys!

Hey Friends I'm feeling good today my mouth ulcers are clearing up. My radiation mask is getting a little tight because of my big puffy chipmunk cheeks. I'm really excited that my birthday is coming. Here's a picture with me and my puffy cheeks! My mom says I had puffy cheeks like this when I was a baby. Tomorrow I'm going to go to school for lunch and a movie - its corn dog day!!!!!!
Love you all thanks for all your great messages!

Lil'Ben



Shaun really wanted to type you all a message so here it is:

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Love Shaun