Katelynn says goodbye...

Well the time has come for Katelynn to say goodbye to Easton for 2 years as he goes to Chile to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We are so grateful for the good example he has been to our family and the love and respect that he has shown our daughter.  It is hard to watch her go through these emotions.  She has been very strong through it all.  Luckily she will be very busy for the next 3 months with softball to make this transition a little easier.

Our 4 year cancer-versary

My sweet little Kristoffer celebrated his 4 year cancer diagnosis anniversary yesterday. He is oblivious to how serious his condition was. This is how our conversation went yesterday...

Me: Do you know what today is?
Kristoffer: Monday
Me: 4 years ago today you were diagnosed with cancer and we were so sad because we didn't know if you were going to live or not.
Kristoffer: Well I did!
Me: Okie dokie!

He has also said that he doesn't like cancer cause it's soooo boring. I could think of 100 other words to describe cancer but to a little boy it was very boring.

We are grateful that he doesn't remember much of his ordeal. I think I remember enough for both of us. So thankful that we have been allowed more time with this peanut!!!

Still Alive...

It has been so long since I have posted anything on this blog. Life has been very crazy. Our school district started having problems with the school board. I don't really have much to say about this except that...the school board President is a crazy racist and we felt like he should not be in charge of our children, so we did something a little crazy...WE MOVED!!! I still am shocked we went thru with it. We bleed purple and we absolutely love Kirtland but we prayed about it and decided our children would benefit from a move to a different school district. So we rented our home out and bought a home in a neighboring town. Overall the move has been good. Very busy. It's probably been hardest on Katelynn as she has missed her friends terribly. She is still dating Easten and he will go on his mission on Feb. 27th to Chile. That will be very hard for my daughter but it will go by quickly. Kristoffer had more tests run in October that all came back normal. Next week it will be 4 years since diagnosis and I can't believe the child the doctors said wouldn't see his 6th birthday will turn 10 in March. He is a miracle!! I'm going to have to back track on the pictures so here are the pictures from Ashley and Connor's birthdays...

And the pictures from the kids 1st day of school...

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!!