Memories...

I was going through old pictures the other day and found a bunch of fun pictures of my kiddos...

Katelynn playing flag football with her friend Taylen and cousins Jacob and Garrett

Ashley looking super cute!

Kristoffer was such a sweet chubby toddler. This picture is so sweet!

Connor was a crier but this picture shows a very sweet baby with my Dad. So sweet. He's got a little drool about to drop too...too funny!

Our weekend at a glance...

So this last weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to go and see my brother get married in the Salt Lake Temple. It was an amazing experience and we are so excited to welcome Britney into our family and give her a special "thank you" for taking Tyler off of our hands!!!

They do make an adorable couple...

I also got to see my Dad and Kathy which was super fun.

We only had our boys with us on this trip because our girls had previous commitments (Ash had a softball tournament and Katelynn had PROM) and could not make it.

We of course would not miss this special occasion for anything but having said that...

Katelynn had her prom this weekend. We have spent the last 2 months preparing for it and I missed it. It broke my heart. I got pictures throughout the evening and I cried. It is her first big dance and I missed it. I do have pictures to ease my pain however and I think she looks gorgeous!! I will post more pictures as they become available to me.

With a couple of friends...

She looked like a princess...

The Results...

Everything on Kristoffer's ultrasound and chest X-ray looks normal!  The preliminary report on his ECHO and EKG was normal.  The Doctor we saw was amazed at how well Kristoffer was doing.  Of course the last time she saw him he was getting chemo and looked awful.  We reviewed what possible side effects he could experience as he grows older.  Some of them are hard to hear.  I won't bore you with the list but as of right now he has not experienced any of them.  So our next round of testing is in 6 months.  And thank heavens for that cause we left our house at 7a.m. and returned at 10p.m.  I was exhausted and I hate driving at night cause it makes me wanna go to sleep.  Luckily my mom came with me to spell me off when I was needing a nap!  All in all a good trip with good news!

Here we go again...

I can't believe it is time to go back to UNM again on Friday!  This has been the longest break we have had from them.  There were times I even forgot that my son ever had cancer.  Well not really but I was loving the normal life that we had before diagnosis.  He will have an ECHO and EKG of his heart and a chest x-ray and ultrasound of his abdomen.  After his testing we will begin a new chapter and meet with the doctor over the YES (Young Enduring Survivorship) clinic to discuss the long term effects of chemo and radiation and what his future will look like.  Amazingly Kristoffer has never had any long term side effects from the chemo/radiation.  Kristoffer did basketball this winter and absolutely loved it.  He has had struggles with school and learning but nothing related to his treatment.  We have been so fortunate to come through this ordeal unscathed.  I finally can walk down the halls of the hospital without a horrible feeling of dread (which is good cause I just started working back at the hospital a few weeks ago).  I think I am more emotionally scarred by the whole thing than he was.  I wasn't sure if he was going to live or die and he never new the seriousness of the situation.  Kids are so resilient!!

Peaches Neet Feet

I want to introduce you to an amazing girl...Madison Steiner. She donated a pair of Converse shoes to my sweet Kristoffer. They are adorable. It never ceases to amaze me how kind and generous people can be. I have posted pictures of his shoes below the video. He has a picture in the video too.  I cry watching the video because nobody likes to see a child suffer but most people don't go the extra mile like she does.  She is amazing.

Kristoffer as you all surely know by now absolutely loves football (and all other sports).  So for his shoes she painted balls of all sorts, a field goal and helmet...

then a cancer ribbon and his name.

I actually had to make him take them off to go to bed.  He really wanted to sleep in them.  He wears them everywhere and absolutely loves them.

3 years ago today...

3 years ago today my sweet Kristoffer was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. We were originally told that it was a neuroblastoma (20% survival rate). Then we got the results of the biopsy and it was determined to be a nephroblastoma which increased his chance of survival a ton. Looking back on that horrible time in our lives, I just can't believe that was our child and our family going through all that. I still worry sometimes that Heavenly Father is going to want him back sooner than I will be prepared to send him. I truly do not think of these things on a daily basis but days like today bring back a ton of memories! I am so grateful to have this little boy in our lives and even more grateful that he is healthy and gets a chance to enjoy his life. We just love this little peanut!