Stetsons turning 4

Saturday March 26

Today my baby is turning 4!! I'm so sad my little guy is growing up.  He is such a great boy and so full of ENERGY!  Our lives are very entertaining with him around. 

The birthday fairy came for another visit.  This tradition has been such a fun one that our kids look forward to every year.

Stetson loves to be just like his older sister.  He too choose to go to kangaroo zoo for his birthday.  We had lots of fun.

This time we were able to get Dad to join us in the fun.  The kids have so much fun playing with their daddy.

That night Stetson choose to to eat at Texas Road House.  His reason was he just wanted t sit on the saddle.  So he pulled out his Cowboy attire and away we went.

The saddle was sitting right next to our table and there was a lot of birthdays that night.  Every time they came to get it he was worried they weren't going to bring it back so he could sit on it.  I've never seen a kid so excited to sit on a saddle before. 

You can see the excitement in his face.  This was worth it all.

then back home for some cake and ice cream.

Present time!!!

Round 8 of Chapter 3

Wednesday March  23

Today we met with Dr. Rich to go over the results from the Pet Scan. Good news is that the cancer has not spread to any other organ that we had not already knew about.  Bad news was that it was showing activity again in his Colon, Liver and a spot on his Pelvic Bone.  Cody and I had been praying about what our next move should be if it came down to it.  We both felt really strong that we needed to precede with the Chemotherapy.  There is another drug that we could add to his regiment right now.  After talking with Dr. Rich he felt the same way, but thought we should hold off treatment today until we knew more about what is going on and what all our options are.  He felt like we should have the Colonoscopy first, meet with the Radiologist that does the biospheres radiation on liver.  If after the Colonoscopy it showed we should do surgery then we would have to wait 4 weeks before surgery after the last round of chemo.  So if we held of today then we would only have to wait 2 more weeks.    We decided it was probley smart to hold treatment and find out exactly what was going on. 

Tenlies turning 6

Friday March 18

Well 6 years ago today our family grew with this wonderful addition.  Tenlie has been such a fun part of our lives.  She has such a big heart and always thinking of others.  This year we told her it was a family party and she was so good with it.  We told the kids they could go anywhere they wanted fun and then to their favorite restaurant.  She thought about it for awhile and responded with "I know how about Disneyland." we started laughing and told her nice try, but it has to be somewhere around here.  So she chose kangaroo zoo.

Birthdays have always been big around our house.  The Birthday fairy always comes for a visit and decorates their bed room doors and leaves Balloons around the house.  The kids get so excited for it.

Then after lunch we headed of to Kangaroo Zoo.  We let her invite her Cousin Katelyn to go with us.  They have so much fun when they get together.

They were running, jumping,and having a good old time.  They would come by every once in a while just to grab a drink.

Then back to the house to pick up dad,Grandma and Grandpa.  While we were there we let her open her presents since she was dyeing to do so.

Her place of choosing was Brickoven.  She loves that place.  I believe she really just likes the balloons.  She is really big into butterfly's so her first pick was a butterfly.  Then later they came by again and asked her if she would like a princess since it was her birthday.  So she got Belle.  This one was incredible I couldn't believe how good it was.

After wards we headed back home to have cake and ice cream.  she has always been our little tinkerbell so her dad had to get her this cake.

We had such a great time as a family and Tenlie brings such joy to us.  Its hard to believe she is 6.  These years have flown by so fast.  We are so proud of our little girl.

Pet Scan

Wednesday March 16

So today we were back in for another Pet scan.  Its kind of nerve racking waiting to find out where the cancer is active again.  Lucky for us they read the Pet scans on Wed. afternoons so we will have answers today. 

Here is Cody in this little room and I mean little. I was standing right next to the wall on one side trying to take this picture .  He was not looking forward to the treatment.

Here they are injecting him with the radioactive chemical that lights up all cancer.

This is the Titanium canister that they have to use around the shot of radioactive fluid they give him.  This thing is solid and quit heavy.  After they get done injecting him away he goes into a dark room all by himself for an hour and a half. 

Round 7 of Chapter 3

Wednesday March 9

So today we are back at the treatment room for another round of maintenance work.  Cody of course was not such a great patient for them today.  His port was acting up again and not letting them draw any blood from it no matter what they tried.  This worried the nurses since not even a drop was coming.  This could mean so many different things.  For starter they wondered if the valve had shifted inside and not in proper place, or the valve was completely detached or it just had a blood clot on the end.  The only way we were able to see what was going on was to head down to radiology and have them shoot his port with a certain fluid and see where it went with an ex-ray.  Cody was extremely nervous.  They came in telling us all the worse case sinerials first.  They talked about maybe having to remove his port and switching sides or having to go in through the groin and stripping the valve.  Neither are good this early in his treatments.  Once they remove it and switch to the other side that's your last chance for a port.

As you can see Cody is not thinking this is very fun at all.  He would hardly talk to me he was quit scared of what they would find.

Well everything came back looking good.  It seamed to be a few small lesions on the end of the valve acting like a trap door.  It was letting fluids in, but would shut as soon as you would try and draw any out.  They injected a blood thinner and wa la it began to work very well.  So back to treatment we will go. 

Our dear friends Stacy and her mom Vicky came to visit us.  Stacy graduated from chemo 2 weeks ago from being treated for breast cancer.  They are so dang cute.  They told us as long as we are there they will be coming to visit during our treatments.  We couldn't ask for any better two people.  They have just become part of our family.

So Friday when we went back to get Cody's pump taken off we were told that the Dr. wanted to see us.  Cody's tumor count has dramatically spiked again.  Even though we had a great CT scan 4 weeks ago his tumor count was still going up.  It has gone from a 3.3 to a 8.7.  The Dr. felt like we needed to do another Pet Scan to get a better look at the entire body.



Tenlies first dance comp.

Saturday February 26

This year was the first time Tenlie was involved in the company.  She loves to perform and wanted to be able to perform more.  She was so funny all week long she kept telling me that at her competition on Saturday there is going to be judges.  I asked her if she was nervous about that and if she understood what the judges were going to be doing.  Her response was of course they are going to be judging us on how well we do and I'm supper excited about that.  Most people get nervous, but not my little one she was super excited. 

They took 1st place in their Jazz routine.  Way to go girls!

Their hip hop dance came next and they rocked the stage.  Everyone fell in love with their outfits.  i believe this is my favorite also.

And again first place in hip hop.

They also did a great job in their lyrical dance.  This one has been more of a struggle for these little ones, but they won it over again 1st place in this division also.

Tenlie was supper excited she got her own meddle to take home and show all her family.  I don't believe she took it off all day.

Since this was her first competition she wanted to stick around for the awards.  It was really fun for her since their team won this big trophy.  She was all smiles coming home to tell her dad and little brother.  I was very proud of our little group they are so dang cute.

Loving the snow

Friday February 25

So today we had a great snow storm and the kids couldn't wait to get out there and play in it.  The first thing Tenlie says to me when I picked her up from school was "mom so you think Grandpa would pull us around behind the 4-wheeler?"  I started laughing and and told her she would have to ask.  As you can see she got her wish.  They love playing out in the snow with their Grandpa.  He is such a great sport when it comes to playing with these two.  I believe they thought my parents back yard was a race track.  Around and around they would go. 

Then they convinced Grandpa into helping them roll a large snow ball.  And of course when it was so big they couldn't roll it Stetson decided to jump on it and smash it.  Tenlie was really ticked.

So once that was gone they wanted to build Snowmen.  Again Grandpa was a good sport and helped them get them built.  Tenlie was doing really well on her own and could get them started she just needed help getting them  on top of things.  Stetson on the other hand had to have some help getting his ball started then he could get it going.

Stetson gave up about half way through and found his dozer.  he said he was snow plowing like daddy.

So here is Stetsons final out come to his Snowman thanks to a lot of work from Grandpa.  Stetson lost interest about half way through.  He just wanted to tip them over.  Such a boy!

And then there is Tenlies Snow woman.  She is so funny she was very particular on how she wanted it. What a girl!

 

Thanks dad for being such a trooper and playing with the kids.  They just adore you.